Filmmaker M Sayibu didn’t have much money to spend on his upcoming sci-fi feature The Batu Project: Adam the First, but he did have the sweeping vistas of Ghana at his disposal.

The film was largely shot over 30 days in Sayibu’s native country, with the small salt mining town of Sege serving as one of its key locations, standing in for an alien planet.

“There was nothing there. You are not in Ghana or on Earth anymore,” Sayibu recalls of driving outside the village to the salt flats.

Adam the First takes place after nuclear war on Earth renders it largely uninhabitable. An African Federation known as the Council of 9 sends a man named Adam (played by Ghanan actor Bex), to an alien planet to find a new home for humanity.

Ahead of its Jan. 5 release in theaters in Ghana, Sayibu has released a teaser for Adam the First,...