Caught between unfinished construction and everyday life, Liminal, the latest short film featured by NOWNESS, explores spaces that exist somewhere between past and future. In Accra, architecture is more than a backdrop—it becomes an active presence, engaging in a silent dialogue with the performer moving through it.
Between Progress and Pause
Accra is one of West Africa’s fastest-changing cities. While new developments continue to reshape the Ghanaian capital, unfinished projects and neglected public infrastructure remain visible reminders that growth is rarely linear.
This tension forms the foundation of Liminal. Directed by visual artist Naafia Naahemaa, the film unfolds inside an unfinished brutalist structure where raw concrete staircases, exposed columns and open spaces evoke a place suspended in time—neither abandoned nor complete.
A Body Responding to Space
Performance artist Nana Yaa Poku Asare-Boadu moves through the building without predetermined choreography. Instead, every gesture emerges in direct response to the architecture surrounding her. The building becomes a partner rather than a stage, turning movement into a conversation with space itself.
An original score by Malick Koly amplifies this relationship, creating an immersive atmosphere where architecture appears almost alive. Concrete, silence and motion merge into a visual language that speaks without words.
Rather than delivering a political statement, Liminal invites viewers to experience questions of urban transformation, uncertainty and resilience through the language of the body.
Architecture as Collective Memory
The project is rooted in conversations with women living in a 1960s social housing development in Kaneshie, whose experiences of displacement, changing neighbourhoods and the gradual erosion of public infrastructure quietly inform the film’s emotional landscape.
As a result, Liminal extends beyond architecture or dance. It reflects on the invisible stories embedded within buildings and on the ways cities shape those who inhabit them.
Like many films curated by NOWNESS, Liminal exists somewhere between cinema, performance art and architectural exploration. It offers a thoughtful meditation on unfinished spaces—not as symbols of failure, but as places where human experience continues to unfold.
