James R | On 10, Oct 2021

Director: Nana Mensah
Cast: Nana Mensah, Meeko Gattuso, Oberon K A Adjepong
Certificate: 15

The Queen of Glory might sound like a grand title, but this indie charmer’s strength lies in just how small it is. The film follows Sarah Obeng (Nana Mensah), a young Ghanaian American who finds herself back in her childhood home of New York. The reason for her homecoming is a tragedy: the loss of her mother.

It’s a blow in more ways than one, as Sarah’s life is upended – not in gigantic, seismic ways but in minute shifts and revelations A PhD student with a boyfriend who’s already married, what once seemed to be falling into place begins to unravel, as Sarah starts to re-evaluate everything that she’s doing and aiming for.

What follows is a beautifully observed slice of Bronx life, which excels at capturing the smallest details of Sarah’s experience, whether it’s trying to co-ordinate two different funerals, connecting with her estranged father (Oberon KA Adjepong) or coming to terms with her grief. The surprising element that plays a key role in the latter is the object of the title: a Christian bookshop that Sarah inherits from her mother.

The central relationship in the movie emerges not with her dad – whose biggest outburst of emotion is in reaction to a football score on the telly – but with Pitt (Meeks Gattuso), the ex-convict who works in the bookshop. He’s both a gateway to the community around the shop and Sarah’s mother, and the more time she spends behind the counter, the more she comes to appreciate the importance of the shop to other people and the more she comes to know of her mother, thanks to Pitt’s anecdotes.

Pitt is great, bringing a gruff darkness and a generous humour to the role of the man turning his life around (mostly via baking brownies), while Mensah shines as writer, director and star, filling the frame with an authenticity rooted in personal experience – even the way that she regresses to her younger self when around her dad rings brilliantly true. Their platonic chemistry, which moves from wariness to warm friendship, is the cornerstone of the film, which finds heartfelt honesty in its tale of connecting with one’s heritage – less a coming-of-age than a coming-of-self story. Clocking in at just 75 minutes, it’s a slight affair, but no less richly layered.

 

This review was originally published during the 2021 London Film festival.

Add to Watchlist