David Dontoh Wins Award
David Dontoh is used to accolades and acclamations about his acting ability.
He was, however, visibly moved when news got to him that his role in King Ampaw's 'No Time To Die' had won him the Best Actor award at the 4th African Film Festival of Tarifa in Spain.
'No Time To Die' was shot on location in Ghana last year. It is a comedy and love story about Asante, played by Dontoh, a hearse driver who struggles to find love because nobody wanted to be associated with a profession that deals in death.
Asante however manages to win the heart of Esi, a young lady who contracts him to transport her mother's corpse to the village.
Esi's father objects to the relationship and that sets off a chain of interesting events which ultimately elicit some great acting from Dontoh.
“It was exciting working again with King Ampaw, 23 years after we did his first feature film, 'Kukurantumi'. I empathised with the 'No Time To Die' storyline and I did all I could to make the Asante character come alive.
The award from the festival in Spain indicates that I succeeded at what I set out to do,” said Dontoh.
There were 14 feature films in competition at the Tarifa festival, which is gradually becoming one of the major forums for African cinema in Europe.
Documentaries and animation were also shown at the festival.
Apart from Ghana, the other competing feature films came from Cameroun, Algeria, Chad, Gabon, Guinea, Mauritius, Mozambique, Burkina Faso and Tunisia.
“Selections for the festival were very good but the 10-member jury was extremely impressed with Dontoh's acting. They felt he was able to depict the character he played very well,” said King Ampaw who was in Tarifa for the festival which spanned from April 27 to May 6.
“I felt proud for Dontoh because word about his acting got to everyone who attended the festival curious to see 'No Time To Die.”
Other actors in the film are Agartha Ofori, Kofi Bucknor, Emmanuel France, Fritz Baffour, Oma Hunter and Agnes Dapaah.
'No Time To Die' has already been screened at festivals in France, Canada and Germany.