PRESS RELEASE

 

If you were raised mainly by your Hungarian grandparents in Wassenaar, your father comes from Ghana and your mother from Hungary, both your parents are medical specialists dedicated to supporting the local communities in their respective home countries, then you really do have all the ingredients for an extrordinary documentary. This is the story that Georgina Kwakye tells in the documentary 'Identiteit zonder grenzen'.

Georgina Kwakye, the well-known television actress and presenter, travelled to Ghana at the end of November to follow in the footsteps of her father.
Lawrence Kofi Bediako Kwakye, Georgina's father, has already been working as a heart surgeon in Europe for many years, but has always remained involved with his homeland. Consequently, he has been dedicated to working alongside the native population to structurally improve both healthcare and education in his native Ghana.

At the moment, L. Bediako Kwakye is building a new hospital in his home town, Biemso. Before that, he had been working on creating a Dialysis Centre in the capital Accra and working on improving the education system in Ghana. In this documentary, Georgina investigates whether internal projects like these have more effect and results than the regular financial aid from the West.

During the documentary, Georgina is confronted with her paternal relationship, the Ghanian culture and her Dutch/Hungarian upbringing . This results in a documentary which not only reports on development projects in Ghana, but is a touching, inspiring report about very special
 people, cultures, passion, vocations, persistence and willpower.

Georgina had had this idea for a long time and she was looking for someone to not only produce it, but who also had a genuine interest in the subject matter.

Georgina was accompanied by, amongst others, Edgar Wurfbain, the well known television and film producer. Edgar and Georgina have known each other for years  and Edgar was quick to become involved with the idea when he heard about it. “As well as being intrigued by this unique and fascinating story, I feel that we, as a production company, must stike a balance between commercial projects and idealism”, says Edgar Wurfbain, one of the partners of Starsound Productions.
“Starsound Productions has already demonstrated the importance of social responsibility in business in its previous productions” Edgar adds.
“This was my first experience of producing a programme  and the project has been an amazing learning process. We have worked very hard onpiecing this story together, right down to the last detail. It has become a very special project”, says Georgina.

To date, the project has been completely self- financed .
“We are convinced that we will find a like-minded partner in the near future who shares our passion for this project and will provide us with the financial support we need to broadcast this documentary to the Dutch population.” says Georgina.

Georgina and Starsound Productions travelled to Ghana in November 2005. In 2006, they returned a second time to find out what had been achieved and to finish their journey.

L.K. Bediako Kwakye
Dr. L. Bediako Kwakye was born in Biemso. After he finished high school, he received a scholarship to study medicine in Hungary. He graduated cum laude and was offered a medical research postion in the Netherlands where he finalized his studies.. Unfortunately, he did not have the possibility to work in Holland, so he went to Germany and Belgium. There he became head of heart surgery and established his own clinic.
 
During all those years, he still kept in touch with Ghana, his home country. Six years ago he brought electricity to his home town of Biemso, built a dialysis centre in Accra and gave a number of Ghanean medical students the chance to study in Germany with the idea of eventually returning to Ghana to practise medicine. At the moment, he is building a hospital in Biemso.

Starsound Productions
Starsound Productions develops, produces and edits audio, video and film productions all under one roof. Starsound Productions was originally created by Edgar Wurfbain and Dennis de Rijk, and has recently expanded gaining two new partners. Producer/director Edgar Wurfbain takes the artistic lead on film and video productions. Edgar is well- known from the series Goudkust, Onderweg naar Morgen, Goeie Tijden Slechte Tijden and Costa. In the area of films, Edgar has starred in Volle Maan, Het Glinsterend Pantser and Emergency Exit. At the moment, Starsound are hard at work making two documentaries and an animated children's series that will be shown in 40 countries world-wide and for various non-profit organisations. During the coming year, Starsound Productions will also produce audio-visual items for the Richard Krajicek Foundation.