Bronx Princess

Teenagers and parents. Put a camera on them and nine times out of ten, you'll get great material on generational conflicts, the necessity of letting go, longing for autonomy and the never-ending squabbles that pervade in the grey area between childhood and adulthood. That's exactly what Yoni Brook and Musa Syeed did for their film Bronx Princess. They observed and interviewed the 17-year-old Rocky Otoo, who lives with her mother in the Bronx. The fierce Rocky and her equally temperamental mother might not resemble each other physically, but emotionally they're a great match. After graduating from high school, Rocky gets sent to Ghana, where her father is the village chief. What begins as a carefree stay in her father's palace turns into a lesson in social tolerance. Tottering between two cultures, Rocky notices that her liberal assertiveness meets with very little understanding in the hierarchical world of her father, who has no patience for her spoiled princess behaviour. When she grouchily expresses the desire to go home, the counter-question becomes "where is home?" For someone with a hybrid background, that's not an easy one to answer, for the concept of home is directly linked to the concept of identity. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)