UNESCO's "Heritage of the World" African Films

Set during a time of famine, and with only two families surviving, the film charts the struggle of Nelisita, a young man who confronts the spirits with help from animals and his friends. Inspired from two folktales of the Ovanyaneka agropastoralist people in southern Angola.

A young student from a family which considers itself "progressive" cannot marry the boy she loves as he comes from the caste of the smiths who are viewed as pariahs.

In pre-colonial times a peddler crossing the savanna discovers a child lying unconscious in the bush. When the boy comes to, he is mute and cannot explain who he is. The peddler leaves him with a family in the nearest village. After a search for his parents, the family adopts him, giving him the name Wend Kuuni (God's Gift) and a loving sister with whom he bonds. Wend Kuuni regains his speech only after witnessing a tragic event that prompts him to reveal his own painful history.

Bila, a young peasant, decides to go to Ivory Coast to work and is asked by his parents to accompany Pogbi who is going to meet her fiancé, through an arranged marriage, for the first time. However, Pogbi is in love with Rasmane, a pariah from the smiths' caste, and runs away.

Young people call into question their village's customs and create an agricultural co-operative.

Poverty and misery are rife in Gourga, a village in the Sahel. The inhabitants must choose: stay and await international assistance or leave for more fertile regions in the country.

It's payday and Adama, a factory worker, counts her meager salary trying to reconcile her needs with those of her family back in the village.

In the early post-Independence years, a young village girl, who is in love with a young villager, is forced to marry a rich, old man. She tries to poison him and is sent to jail.

In the Mossi culture, one of the rites attending the birth of a child and its induction as a new member of the community involves the burial of the placenta. The space in which the placenta is buried is called 'Zan Boko' - a phrase which connotes the religious, cultural and affective relations that bind the child to the land and that embraces the notions of 'rootedness' and 'belonging'. Kaboré tells the story of Tinga, who resists the encroaching urbanization of his native territory. The specific rhythms and vision of the rural community, including its values, social relationship, and individual & collective destinies, are altered when a city is planted on the edge of an ancient native village.

A small village in Burkina Faso. The story focuses on Bila, a ten year old boy who befriends an old woman, Sana. Everybody calls her 'Witch' but Bila himself calls her 'Yaaba' (grandmother). When Bila's cousin Nopoko gets sick it is Sana's medicine who saves her.

After obtaining their Secondary School diplomas, some young people plan to continue their education but are not sure which area to choose.

Set in a pre-colonial African past, Tilai is about an illicit love affair and its consequences. Saga returns to his village after an extended absence to discover that his father has taken Nogma, Saga's promised bride, for himself. Still in love with each other, the two begin an affair, although it would be considered incestuous. When the liaison is discovered, Saga's brother, Koudri, pretends to kill Saga for the honor of the family and village. Saga and Nogma flee to another village, but when Nogma's birth mother dies, he returns home. Having brought ruin on the family, Saga is shot by Koudri, who walks off into exile and probable death.

A richly textured film about contemporary African youth torn between traditional village ways and the promise of an urban future.

The story of a peaceful, well-to-do village which is suddenly disturbed by a murder and a series of unsettling events.

A blacksmith falls off his bicycle when he tries to avoid a tortoise which crosses his path. He brings the animal home to his twelve year old son, Rabi, who becomes so fascinated that he forgets his chores at this father's shop. When the angry smith removes the tortoise, Rabi's grandfather, Pusga, helps Rabi find a larger one to consol the boy. Rabi wants to tame the animal and this new obsession leads him to defy parental authority. Pusga gently opens the boy's eyes to the visible and invisible ways of nature. Rabi starts to understand liberty, responsibility and respect for life. In turn he awakens long buried sentiments in the grandfather.

A young man returns from Europe obsessed with his sexual inhibition.

A man falls in love with an otherworldly woman.

A West African pig farmer has a religious vision, wherein he is told that he'll be Magloire the First, a prophet of Christ. He then sets out to rid his local villagers of superstition and instead save them for Jesus.

A short film which explores the plight of the Africans in France.