African Cinema

  • Ababacar Samb-Makharam – Kodou (1971)

    1971-1980Ababacar Samb-MakharamAfrican CinemaDramaSenegal

    A young girl, Kodou, submits herself, somewhat out of bravado, to a tattooing practice. But in the middle of the ceremony, and while the matrons are singing to her, Kodou runs away – a serious offence to the age-old traditions of the village. Kodou’s family feels discredited, her friends make fun of her. Confined to a quasi-quarantine, Kodou goes mad and violently attacks the young children. Her parents end up taking her to a psychiatric hospital run by a European doctor, but to no avail. They then decide to submit her to a traditional exorcism session. Then Kodou is brought back home. Will she be cured?Read More »

  • Pascal Abikanlou – Sous le signe du vaudou AKA Under the Sign of the Voodoo (1974)

    1971-1980African CinemaBeninDramaFantasyPascal Abikanlou

    A young man neglects the ritual offerings to the voodoo deities and invokes their anger. His family suffers the consequences: house burned, crops destroyed. He leaves for the city to try to help them, but finds himself caught up in drugs. He ends up meeting a young girl who encourages him to return to the village. They marry in the voodoo tradition and the curse is lifted.Read More »

  • Arie Esiri & Chuko Esiri – Eyimofe AKA This Is My Desire (2020)

    2011-2020African CinemaArie EsiriChuko EsiriDramaNigeria

    Quote:
    This revelatory, award-winning debut feature from codirec­tors (and twin brothers) Arie and Chuko Esiri is a heartrending and hopeful portrait of everyday human endurance in Lagos, Nigeria. Shot on richly textured 16 mm film and infused with the spirit of neorealism, Eyimofe (This Is My Desire) traces the journeys of two distantly connected strangers—Mofe (Jude Akuwudike), an electrician dealing with the fallout of a family tragedy, and Rosa (Temi Ami-Williams), a hairdresser supporting her pregnant teenage sister—as they each pursue their dream of starting a new life in Europe while bumping up against the harsh economic realities of a world in which every interaction is a transaction. From these intimate stories emerges a vivid snapshot of life in contemporary Lagos, whose social fabric is captured in all its vibrancy and complexity.Read More »

  • Safi Faye – Mossane (1997)

    Safi Faye1981-1990African CinemaArthouseDramaSenegal

    Quote:
    This Senegalese melodrama tells the story of a young girl called Mossane who lives in a village between the ocean and the savannah. There, veneration for the traditions is very common. There’s a legend saying that every other century a girl is born who is doomed because of her beauty. Mossane is only fourteen years old but is already considered to be extraordinary beautiful. Even her own brother is in love with her. According to the custom she has been promised to a rather wealthy man called Diogoye since the day of her birth. However, Mossane is in love with the poor student Fara who is forced to return to the village while the university is on strike. Torn between her own dreams and traditions, Mossane decides to escape. The film shows the resistance of the young generation and is dedicated especially to the African women, their courage and their wish for emancipation.Read More »

  • Mehdi Barsaoui – Bik Eneich: Un fils AKA A Son (2019)

    2011-2020African CinemaDramaMehdi BarsaouiTunisia

    Tunisia, summer 2011. The holiday to Southern country ends in disaster for Fares, Meriem and their 10-year old son Aziz when he is accidentally shot in an ambush. His injury will change their lives as Aziz needs a liver transplant, which leads to the discovery of a long-buried secret. Will Aziz and their relationship survive?Read More »

  • Mahamat-Saleh Haroun – Lingui AKA Lingui: The Sacred Bonds (2021)

    2021-2030African CinemaChadDramaMahamat-Saleh Haroun

    Amina, a practicing Muslim, lives with her daughter, 15-year-old Maria. When Amina learns Maria is pregnant and wants to abort the child, they face an impossible situation in a country where abortion is legally and morally condemned.Read More »

  • Safi Faye – Kaddu Beykat (1976)

    1971-1980African CinemaDramaSafi FayeSenegal

    Ngor is a young man living in a Senegalese village who wishes to marry Columba. Ongoing drought in the village has affected its crop of groundnuts and as a result, Ngor cannot afford the bride price for Columba.Read More »

  • Rosine Mfetgo Mbakam – Les prières de Delphine AKA Delphine’s Prayers (2021)

    2021-2030African CinemaCameroonDocumentaryRosine Mfetgo Mbakam

    Through interviews as intimate as they are disconcerting, we meet Delphine, a Cameroonian immigrant residing in Belgium who narrates her life for the camera of Rosine Mbakam, also originally from Cameroon. As in her previous feature film “At Jolie Coiffure” (awarded at Olhar ’19), concise elements become a cinematographic force based on the encounter between black women all at once close and distant. The protagonist’s confessional tone reveals her self-awareness as the conductor of her own story, dealing with patriarchal and colonial scars and striving to assert her own voice.Read More »

  • Petna Ndaliko Katondolo – Matata (2019)

    2011-2020African CinemaArthouseCongo (Brazzaville)Petna Ndaliko KatondoloShort Film

    A woman poses. A man with a camera zeros in on her and takes a picture. But very soon, the shoot degenerates. Each click of the camera sounds like a machine gun. No-one speaks; the editing is disrupted, and with it, the images, the spaces and the timing. The woman escapes. In an abandoned building, a man, as mute as she is, shrinks from her gaze. It is he that the film now follows: he explores a museum exhibiting the history of Africa, its suffering and its external interferences.Read More »

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