Films Africa

Ezra is the first film to give an African perspective on the disturbing phenomenon of abducting child soldiers into the continent's recent civil wars. Ezra is structured around the week-long questioning of a 16 year old boy, Ezra, before a version of the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions, created in Sierra Leone in 2002 in the wake of its decade long civil war. This hearing is then inter-cut with chronological flashbacks to pivotal moments during Ezra's ten years in the rebel faction which made him who he is.

Kongo is writing a book on the subject of immigrants but while his editor wants a kind of traveler's book in which ethnic exotic ingredients are offered to a European audience, Kongo has more ambitious ideas - he conceives of the idea of writing a book that follows the paths of Congolese history and its many ghosts. A brave and powerful film, made with single-mind integrity. Filmed mainly in the Congo, the film also provides a slice of life of the contemporary Congolese community in Brussels.

In Jean-Pierre Bekolo's barbed political satire, an infectious hybrid of horror and science fiction, vampiric femmes fatales emasculate high-ranking Cameroonian officials through ancient rituals of Mevoungou.

Story of a young caricaturist who works in an opposition newspaper and his relations with his father, Imam of the Great Mosque of Conakry.

The action is set in an unnamed African country, where a brutal government's death squad commanded by Colonel Koulbou (Felkissam Mahamat) is active. A journalist, Adoum (Youssouf Djaoro), having obtained his passport wants to travel abroad so to be able to report on the situation in his country; but while at the airport, a compromising letter is found on him. Adoum is thrown in one of Koulbou's jails. All hope seems lost, but Adoum finds unexpected help from Koulbou's estranged wife, Hawa.

A group of woman in an African village finds a mystical mask. Using the mask, they reverse gender roles, women act like men, and men act like women.

Yaguiné and Fodé, schoolboys who try in vain to find work to help their poor families. Lured by the symbols of Western affluence and power that surround them, the two stow away on a flight to Europe.

The Ethiopian intellectual Anberber returns to his native country during the repressive totalitarian regime of Haile Mariam Mengistu and the recognition of his own displacement and powerlessness at the dissolution of his people's humanity and social values. After several years spent studying medicine in Germany, he finds the country of his youth replaced by turmoil. His dream of using his craft to improve the health of Ethiopians is squashed by a military junta that uses scientists for its own political ends. Seeking the comfort of his countryside home, Anberber finds no refuge from violence. The solace that the memories of his youth provide is quickly replaced by the competing forces of military and rebelling factions. Anberber needs to decide whether he wants to bear the strain or piece together a life from the fragments that lie around him.

Done in the style of an African folk tale, this film, a collaboration between European and African countries, is said to be among the most elaborate, high tech film in African film. Exquisitely photographed and filled with archetypal figures to create a poetic look at nature's revenge against those who would exploit her. It is set in the forest village of Amanha Lundju, a place where the birth of children is celebrated by the planting of a tree. The trees are considered spiritual twins. But for every tree planted, the rapacious state destroys many more for firewood and lumber.

Six days in the violent life of a young Johannesburg gang leader.

A hot-shot journalist is swept up in a movement to challenge Apartheid in 1950s South Africa.

La Nuit de la Vérité is situated in an imaginary West African country. After ten years of civil war between the government army of the Nayak, led by 'Le président', and the Bonande rebels led by Colonel Theo, there is some sign of peace negotiations. But not everyone is in favor of peace and one can feel the tension. The night of truth starts with a festive dinner, but the village idiot Tomoto always seems capable of ruining the attempts for peace with violence and provocation.

Literary adaptation: Thru the story of a quiet teenage boy introduced to a powerful wrestling champ, we learn about the specific features of a national tradition in Senegal.

In Mauritania, a country seemingly bound by tradition and male dominance, three women speak freely about sex, love and money.

Down and out businessman uses witchcraft to get ahead.

Tells the story of an idealistic young politician's rise and fall. Daam, a well-intentioned but vacillating European-trained politician must choose between two social paradigms exemplified by his two wives. The first, Gagnesiri, is the village beauty, who waits patiently for Daam. Unfortunately, they are unable to conceive a child, so Daam takes European-educated Kiné, who is eager to get ahead by marrying a politician. Daam becomes involved in a shady business deal with Président, a local businessman; when the details are made public, he is forced out in disgrace.

Bamako. Melé is a bar singer, her husband Chaka is out of work and the couple is on the verge of breaking up... In the courtyard of the house they share with other families, a trial court has been set up. African civil society spokesmen have taken proceedings against the World Bank and the IMF whom they blame for Africa's woes... Amidst the pleas and the testimonies, life goes on in the courtyard. Chaka does not seem to be concerned by this novel Africa's desire to fight for its rights...

Mythical story about a fishing village on the south coast of Senegal. Two men in the village are both in love with the same beautiful girl.

A militant tribute to the commitment of South African women, carried by a fierce energy marked with rage and despair.

From Che Guevara's military campaign to avenge Lumumba in the Congo up to the fall of apartheid in South Africa, 300,000 Cubans fought alongside African revolutionaries. CUBA, AN AFRICAN ODYSSEY is the previously untold story of Cuba's support for African revolutions, one of the Cold War's most vigorous contests over resources and ideology.

In The Colonial Misunderstanding Jean-Marie Teno sheds light on the complex and problematic relationship between colonization and European missionaries on the African continent. The film looks at Christian evangelism as the forerunner of European colonialism in Africa, indeed, as the ideological model for the relationship between North and South even today. In particular it looks at the role of missionaries in Namibia on the centenary of the 1904 German genocide of the Herrero people there. It reveals how colonialism destroyed African beliefs and social systems and replaced them with European ones as if they were the only acceptable routes to modernity. As Prof. F. Kangué Ewané says in the film: "I can forgive Westerners for taking away my land ...but not for taking away my mind and soul." Through an examination of the work of German missionary societies in Africa whose vocation was to bring Christianity - and by extension, European culture and European rule - to the heathens, Jean Marie Teno reveals The Colonial Misunderstanding.

Charlie, a 15-year-old introvert, enters high school and is nervous about his new life. When he befriends his seniors, he learns to cope with his friend's suicide and his tumultuous past.

An African student stranded in Paris after losing his government grant discovers a bag of drugs and money while working as a parking garage attendant.

Kandia, an African women in her fifties who has lived in Sweden for 30 years, decides to move back to Gambia. Her son Ibbe, who dreams of a career in hip hop and is about to make a breakthrough, goes with her. Their encounter with their homeland, however, doesn't turn out the way they imagined. A warm, broad drama comedy about a universal theme: identity.