Love in the time of Ebola: 'Hell's Gate' opens in Liberia

Monrovia. A new Liberian film, "Hell's Gate" opens Friday in the capital Monrovia about two lovers whose wedding plans are upended when the deadly Ebola virus strikes and they have to care for a patient.               

An outbreak of the disease raged in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea in 2014-16, killing more than 11,300 people in the neighbouring West African countries.

"There is a need to have a document on what devastated our country during the Ebola outbreak," the film's executive producer Cosme Pulano told AFP. 

Already decimated by back-to-back civil wars from 1989 to 2003, Liberia was the worst-hit country, where the virus claimed 4,800 lives. 

Pulano added that he hoped "Hell's Gate" would serve an educational purpose since the "virus could return anytime." 

West Africa is currently free of Ebola but the Democratic Republic of Congo has an ongoing outbreak. The much-feared virus has killed 2,199 there since August 2018.

Pulano, who is also an employee at Liberia's presidential affairs ministry, barely escaped Ebola himself.

At one point during the outbreak he suffered strong headaches, he told AFP, and family members avoided him suspecting he had fallen sick.  

Pulano ignored advice to visit an Ebola clinic after his sister argued that he would have already have died if he were infected. 

"Entering an Ebola Treatment Unit was like entering hell," he said, explaining the title of the film. 

"Hell's Gate" -- which cost some $40,000 (36,300 euros) to produce -- is entirely Liberian made. 

All of the 169 cast and crew members are Liberian, and Pulano wrote the script after interviewing local doctors and Ebola victims.

"There is a need for us to tell our own story," he said. 

The film premieres in Monrovia at 1700 GMT, and 15 percent of the profits will go toward Ebola orphans, according to Pulano.