From directors, Christine Boateng and Hajarah Musah Chambas, Zjili: A Story of Sisterhood and the Burden of Excess tells the story of Zoya (portrayed beautifully by Abdulla Rahana), a teenager who has big aspirations. When the path to achieving her goals is blocked, she moved from northern Ghana to Accra with the hopes of making enough money to further her education. While she’s there, she meets a group of women with their own dreams, including Teiya (Esinam Semordzi) and Charpang (Zarahawu Fuseini). These women take young Zoya under their wings, teaching her how to be a kayayei (women who transport heavy loads on their heads for money). As time passes however, the dangers of their nature of work become increasingly difficult to ignore.
Through the stories of its characters, Zjili weaves together the varying circumstances that drive women to desperate lengths; including the threat of child marriage, an ailing parent, and a forced abortion. It highlights the dreams that push them (much like Congo Boy, which I saw earlier the same day), but doesn’t sugarcoat the realities of the road to making those dreams a reality. Instead, Zjili reiterates the hardships of the road, the nagging pain, and dashed dreams after momentary celebration. The film doesn’t regale us with tales of their hard work paying off, instead the happiness it offers is its ‘sisterhood’. The women simultaneously act as launching pads for each other and soft places to land when they fall.
Visually, the film feels intimate, like you are walking the market with the characters, but the emotional high of Zjili is told through a sequence that pulls out of that, leaning more breathtaking, before everything comes crashing down.
Zjili really is a story of burdens and what they can do when unchecked, and it is not shy about facing those repercussions. Watching it, you get the sense it does not have the luxury to be shy, especially with the dangers posed to the real people whose lives it portrays.
Zjili: A Story of Sisterhood and the Burden of Excess is playing at TIFF ’26. For more information, click here.
