Black Star:
An African Football Odyssey

A Film by PAUL YULE

A journey to Ghana to explore Africa's changing relationship with football.

With the 2008 African Cup of Nations setting the scene, the focus is on the highly marketable Chelsea midfielder Michael Essien: the rock upon which Ghana's football team, the 'Black Stars', is built. It soon becomes clear that Essien is a hugely important figure in Ghana, and not just in terms of football. People like he and Didier Drogba have made a difference to Africa's sense of its own power.

Meanwhile, the tournament itself represents the continent's ongoing struggle for greater integration. Indeed Ghana's first President in 1958, Kwame Nkrumah, saw football and the Cup of Nations as a means of doing nothing less than uniting the continent.

As the sport grows in Africa through football academies, reality TV shows and highly lucrative sponsorship deals from Europe - and with an eye on South Africa hosting the World Cup in 2010 - the film asks: Does Africa itself benefit from the amazing development of its football? or is this just a new scramble for Africa by the European powers?