Queen of Glory

In her feature filmmaking debut, writer-director Nana Mensah plays Ghanaian-American Sarah. Sarah is a PhD student whose planned future is thrown into disarray by the unexpected death of her mother, and the surprising news that she has inherited her beloved Christian bookstore in the Bronx. Tasked with planning the funeral, Sarah must juggle the cultural expectations of her family and the reappearance of her estranged father, whilst deciding whether to sell the bookstore. Winner of Best New Narrative Director at Tribeca, this heartfelt comedy marks an exciting new talent to watch.

‘As a child of immigrants, everyone is always obsessed with education, and I thought it would be cool to explore the extreme of that — to see what would happen if a main character sought refuge in academia so as to avoid real life. Next, I wanted to explore the idea of inheritance, both the physical traits and items we get from our families. Aside from that, I basically took everything I wanted to see someone go through and whipped it up into a little narrative; I love family dysfunction, I love navigating class issues (especially among people of color), and I love watching how people cope with their personal failings.’

Director Nana Mensah, from an interview in HelloGiggle.