African Film Watchlist
Films about Africa. Doc & Fiction Films.
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- DirectorOusmane SembeneStarsMbissine Thérèse DiopAnne-Marie JelinekRobert FontaineA black girl from Senegal becomes a servant in France.
- DirectorDjibril Diop MambétyStarsMagaye NiangMyriam NiangChristoph ColombMory, a cowherd, and Anta, a university student, try to make money in order to go to Paris and leave their boring past behind.
- DirectorYoussef ChahineStarsFaten HamamahOmar SharifZaki RostomA rich landlord floods and destroys a village on purpose to prevent the people living there from making a profit off their crops. What he doesn't know is that his own daughter is in love with Ahmed, a young man from the village.
- DirectorLionel RogosinStarsZacharia MgabiVinah BendileMiriam MakebaCome Back, Africa chronicles the life of Zachariah, a black South African living under the rule of the harsh apartheid government in 1959.
- DirectorLeslie Woodhead
- DirectorRené VautierStarsRené VautierDocumentary about the living conditions in a small Ivorian village during French colonization.
- DirectorJean RouchStarsOumarou GandaGambiPetit Touré"I, a Negro" depicts young Nigerien immigrants who left their country to find work in the Ivory Coast, in the Treichville quarter of Abidjan, the capital. These immigrants live in squalor in Treichville, envious of the bordering quarters of The Plateau (the business and industrial district) and the old African quarter of Adjame. The film traces a week in these immigrants' lives, blurring the line between their characters' routines and their own. Every morning, Tarzan, Eddy Constantine and Edward G. Robinson seek work in Treichville in hopes of getting the 20 francs that a bowl of soup costs them. They perform menial jobs as dockers carrying sacks and handy labor shipping supplies to Europe. At night, they drink away their sorrows in bars while dreaming about their idealized lives as their "movie" alter-egos, alternatively as an FBI Agent, a womanizing bachelor, a successful boxer, and even able to stand up to the white colonialists that seduce away their women. These dream-like sequences are shot in a poetic mode. Each day is introduced by an interstitial voice of god omniscient narration from Jean Rouch, providing a universal thematic distance to the movie's events. The film is book-ended by a narration directed at both Petit Jules and the audience from Edward G. Robinson fondly looking back on his childhood in Niger and concluding that his life is worthy of his dreams.
- DirectorHenry BarakatStarsFaten HamamahAhmad MazharAminah RizqThis compelling tale of love and betrayal, set in the upper Egyptian countryside, follows the story of Amna as she plots her revenge on the engineer who destroyed her family's honor.
- DirectorJean RouchStarsNadine BallotDeniseElolaThe arrival of Nadine, a new student, at a school in Abidjan is the starting point for a discussion about interracial relationships.
- DirectorOusmane SembeneStarsLy AbdoulayAlbourahBoron Sarret is arguably the first film made by a black African. It illustrates poverty in Senegal, particularly for the working man.
- DirectorOusmane SembeneStarsSerigne SowAstou N'DiayeMame DiaThe pregnancy of a young girl scandalizes her community.
- DirectorHenry BarakatStarsFaten HamamahZaki RostomAbdallah GheithA poor peasant woman becomes a symbol of worker oppression in this somber social drama directed by Henri Barakat. Azziza (Faten Hamama) is brutally raped by a guard when she goes into the fields to gather potatoes for her husband (Abdallah Gheiss). She does not relate the incident to her husband who is suffering from an undisclosed illness. Azziza hides the pregnancy and strangles the baby after it is born, but she also dies soon thereafter. The migrant workers rally around her memory as she becomes a martyr to the cause of the struggling peasants.
- DirectorGillo PontecorvoStarsBrahim HadjadjJean MartinYacef SaadiIn the 1950s, fear and violence escalate as the people of Algiers fight for independence from the French government.
- DirectorMoustapha AlassaneStarsHarouna DiarraDjingarey Abdoulaye MaïgaZalika SouleyBack from the US to his village in Niger, a man brings western outfits to his close friends, who immediately identify with cow-boys. A bloody western begins in the savannah...
- DirectorJean RouchStarsTahirou KoroIssiaka MoussaBelébia MoussaA group of West African hunters embark on a ritual hunt, tracking a pride of lions which has been attacking their cattle.
- DirectorMed HondoStarsRobert LiensolThéo LégitimusAmbroise M'BiaA native of Mauritania is delighted when he is chosen to work in Paris. However, he is disappointed when he sees racial inequity as blacks are relegated to manual labor while less skilled whites are given preferential treatment.
- DirectorOusmane SembeneStarsMakhouredia GueyeYnousse N'DiayeIsseu NiangA money order from a relative in Paris throws the life of a Senegalese family man out of order. He deals with corruption, greed, problematic family members, the locals and the changing from his traditional way of living to a more modern one.
- DirectorChadi Abdel SalamStarsAhmed MareiAhmad HegaziNadia LutfiAn Upper-Egyptian clan robs a cache of mummies and sells the artifacts on the illicit antiquities black market. After a conflict within the clan, one of its members goes to the police, helping the Antiquities Service find the cache.
- DirectorOumarou GandaStarsOumarou GandaZalika SouleyBalarabiCabascabo, a veteran of the French colonial army in Indochina, returns to his home town in Niger, acclaimed by friends and relatives. In fragmented flash-backs, he tells the story of his adventure and the battles in that distant land.
- DirectorDjibril Diop MambétyStarsLamine BaAl Demba CissChristoph ColombSarcastic look at Senegal's capital following the adventures of a somewhat immoral street urchin.
- DirectorChadi Abdel SalamStarsAhmad AnanAhmad HegaziAhmed MareiBased on one of the major literary texts survived from the Middle Kingdom, the classical period of Egyptian literature, The Eloquent Peasant is a combination of a morality/folk tale and a poem. The events are set between 2160 and 2025 BC. When the peasant Khun-anup and his donkey stumble upon the lands of the noble Rensi, the peasant's goods are confiscated and he's unjustly accused of theft. The peasant petitions Rensi who is so taken by the peasant's eloquence that he report his astonishing discovery to the king. The king realises the peasant has been wronged but delays judgement so as to he can hear more of his eloquence. The peasant makes a total of nine petitions until finally, his goods are returned.
- DirectorYoussef ChahineStarsMahmoud Al MelejiNagwa IbrahimEzzat El AlailiA small peasant village's struggles against the careless inroads of the large local landowner. The Land shows why political oppression does not necessarily lead to a sense of solidarity among the disinherited.
- DirectorPier Paolo PasoliniStarsGato BarbieriDonald F. MoyeMarcello MelisThe director presents takes and scenes filmed on location in Africa for a film-that-never-was, a black Oresteia.
- DirectorOusmane SembeneStarsAndongo DiabonRobert FontaineMichel RenaudeauAs World War II is going on in Europe, a conflict arises between the French and the Diola-speaking tribe of Africa, prompting the village women to organize their men to sit beneath a tree to pray.
- DirectorOumarou GandaStarsOumarou GandaJoseph SalamatouZalika SouleyAn Islamic faithful returns from his holy pilgrimage to Mecca with the venerated title "el hajji". On his return he falls in love with his daughter's friend Santou, who is already engaged to be married to Garba. El Hadji however already has two wives and his second wife, Gaika, cannot stand the idea of another younger wife entering her house. She plots to kill Santou.
- DirectorJean Rouch
- DirectorJean RouchStarsDamouré ZikaLam Ibrahim DiaTallou MouzouraneThe story follows three poultry sellers on a trip across the bush, attempting to deliver a load of chickens to a market in Niamey. When a third person joins the group, the organization of the trip begins to look even more precarious.
- DirectorOusmane SembeneStarsThierno LeyeMyriam NiangSeune SambA corrupt politician is cursed with impotence on the night of his third wedding after embezzling 100 tons of rice.
- DirectorHaile GerimaStarsKasu AsfawGebru KasaWorke KasaIn Ethiopia; there is a slow boiling of a feud between a wealthy Lord and a protester who feels he is mistreating his laborers. While the viewer gets to closely examine the culture, conversations, and lives of the locals who surround them.
- DirectorJean RouchStarsLam Ibrahim DiaDiamaOumarou GandaOnce upon a time, in the middle of the last century, a great warrior named Babatou. Nigerian jumper from the region Dounga Gurunsi invaded the country and settled there. The brave prisoners were integrated into the army, women espoused. For fifty years, the adventurous young people from Niger Babatou went to live in the epic.
- DirectorOusmane SembeneStarsTabata NdiayeAlioune FallMoustapha YadeIn protest of forced conversion to Islam, the Ceddo (outsiders) kidnap King Demba War's daughter Princess Dior Yacine and hold her hostage.
- DirectorAssia DjebarReturning to her native region 15 years after the end of the Algerian war, Lila is obsessed by memories of the war for independence that defined her childhood. In dialogue with other Algerian women, she reflects on the differences between her life and theirs.
- DirectorGermaine DieterlenJean Rouch
- DirectorSouheil Ben-BarkaStarsIrene PapasLaurent TerzieffDjohra BacheneIn a small village in southern Morocco, Amrouch cannot, because of his social position, marry the daughter of a wealthy farmer from the nearby village. Based on Federico García Lorca's play.
- DirectorDanièle HuilletJean-Marie StraubStarsDanièle HuilletBahgat ElnadiGérard SamaanA sequence of shots of rural landscapes accompanied by readings of texts about the struggles of poor farmers.
- DirectorGaston KaboréStarsSerge YanogoRosine YanogoJoseph NikiemaIn 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.
- DirectorTrinh T. Minh-haA short film which documents the lives of women in a rural Senegal.
- DirectorLuc de Heusch
- DirectorTrinh T. Minh-haStarsBarbara ChristianTrinh T. Minh-haLinda PeckhamExplores the rhythm and ritual life in the rural environment of six West African countries: Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin, and Senegal.
- DirectorRaymond DepardonStarsFrançoise PrenantA man invites a woman to share his room in a hostel and gradually falls in love with her.
- DirectorDésiré EcaréStarsSidiki BakabaKouadou BrouAlbertine N'GuessanAt a festival, a chorus of women sing and dance as two stories unfold. In a village, a young women with a jealous husband gives him something to be jealous about when his younger brother visits from the city.
- DirectorMed HondoStarsAï KeïtaJean-Roger MiloFéodor AtkineOn January 2 1899, starting from the French Soudan, a french column under the commandment of the captains Voulet and Chanoine is send against the black Sultan Rabah in what is now the Cameroun. Those captains and their african mercenary troops destroy and kill everything they find on their path. The French autority try to stop them sending orders and a second troop but the captains even kill the emissaries who are reaching them. Sarraounia, queen of the Aznas, have heared about the exactions. Clever in war tactics and in witchcraft, she decides to resist and stop those mad men.
- DirectorSouleymane CisséStarsIssiaka KaneAoua SangareNiamanto SanogoA young man with magical powers journeys to his uncle to request help in fighting his sorcerer father.
- DirectorOusmane SembeneThierno Faty SowStarsSidiki BakabaHamed CamaraIsmaila CisséIn this semi-autobiographical film, black soldiers help to defend France, but are detained in prison camp before being repatriated home.
- DirectorFlora GomesStarsBia GomesTunu Eugenio AlmadaMamadu Uri BaldeThe story of a woman who searches through the country for her husband, a resistant, while the war for independence is raging. She finds him at last and saves his life. When peace finally arrives, they have to learn how to be together again and start living in a destroyed land.
- DirectorMohamed ChouikhStarsDjillali Ain-TedelesYamina BachirMohamed BakiIn a small village in rural Algeria, the "village idiot" is madly in love with a married woman. His voyeurism and antics bring shame on his father, who guarantees that his son will be married that same day, or his four wives will be repudiated.
- DirectorMoustapha DaoStarsOumarou Kabore
- DirectorIdrissa OuedraogoStarsFatimata SangaNoufou OuédraogoRoukietou BarryA 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.
- DirectorIdrissa OuedraogoStarsRasmané OuédraogoIna CisséRoukietou BarrySet 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.
- DirectorOusmane SembeneStarsAbou CamaraMarie Augustine DiattaYama DiedhiouBurial of a Christian political activist in a Muslim cemetary forces a conflict imbued with religious fervor. A satiric portrayal of religion and politics, sometimes humorous, sometimes deadly serious.
- DirectorDjibril Diop MambétyStarsMansour DioufAmi DiakhateMamadou Mahourédia GueyeDramaan is the most popular man in Colobane, but when a woman from his past, now exorbitantly wealthy, returns to the town, things begin to change.
- DirectorHaile GerimaStarsKofi GhanabaOyafunmike OgunlanoAlexandra DuahA self-absorbed Black American fashion model on a photo shoot in Africa is spiritually transported back to a plantation in the West Indies where she experiences first-hand the physical and psychic horrors of chattel slavery, and eventually the redemptive power of community and rebellion as she becomes a member of a freedom-seeking Maroon colony.
- DirectorJean RouchStarsDamouré ZikaLam Ibrahim DiaTallou MouzouraneThree African friends travel from their drought stricken Niger to an inundated Holland (where they learn about sustainable low tech windmills) and back again in this act of collaborative filmmaking suffused with improvisation and humor.
- DirectorManthia DiawaraNgugi Wa Thiong'oStarsManthia DiawaraOusmane SembeneJohn SingletonSenegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembène reminisces about his career and discusses the craft of his films and novels. Topics of discussion are also the role of the artist in society and the politics of decolonisation.
- DirectorDjibril Diop MambétyStarsDieye MaAminata FallDemba BâA broke and dopey musician, constantly harassed by his exasperated landlady, glues his lottery ticket to his door and when it turns out to be a winner must carry his door to the lottery office.
- DirectorMoufida TlatliStarsHind SabriGhalya LacroixNejia OuerghiAs she grows up, Alia (the daughter of housemaid Khedija) learns the secrets of the peaceful palace where she and her mother live.
- DirectorRaymond DepardonMiscellaneous images of African life.
- DirectorSafi FayeStarsMagou SeckIsseu NiangMoustapha YadeMossane is a beautiful 14-year-old girl who has just reached marriageable age in a village in Senegal. She has many suitors, including a simple-minded farmer's son who plans to drag her away. Even her own brother Ngor is in love with her. However she is in love with Fara, a poor student who has returned to the village, while the university is on strike. At birth, she had been promised in marriage to Diogoye, who went away to work in France. Diogoye, who supplied her parents with many things over the years, has now sent a dowry, and asked that she be married to him in the village in his absence; she would then be sent to France.
- DirectorFérid BoughedirStarsSonia MankaïAva Cohen-JonathanSarah ParienteSummer, 1967. La Goulette, the touristic beach of Tunisia, is the site where three nice seventeen-year-old girls live: Gigi, Sicilian and Catholic; Meriem, Tunisian and Arab; Tina, French and Jewish. They would like to have their first sexual experience during that summer, challenging their families. Their fathers, Youssef, Jojo and Giuseppe, are old friends and their friendship will be in crisis because of the girls, while Hadj, an old rich Arab, would like to marry Meriem.
- DirectorCheick Oumar SissokoStarsSotigui KouyatéSalif KeïtaBalla Moussa KeitaInspired by the book of Genesis, this film tells the power struggle between two families: a clan of herders led by Jacob and another clan of hunters fronted by his brother Esau.
- DirectorDjibril Diop MambétyStarsMoussa BaldéLissa BaleraAminata FallA girl sells copies of Soleil, the government paper.
- DirectorOusmane SembeneStarsVenus SeyeMame NdoumbéAwa Sene SarrA forty-year-old woman refuses to give into the stigma of unwed motherhood and climbs the ladder of success in a male dominated field.
- DirectorAbderrahmane SissakoStarsKhatra Ould Abder KaderMaata Ould Mohamed AbeidMohamed Mahmoud Ould MohamedThe story of two people who cross paths in Nouhadhibou.
- DirectorFlora GomesStarsFatou N'DiayeJean-Christophe DolléÂngelo TorresIt has always been a firm conviction of the family that any woman who sings, will die. Now, while a girl is in France she becomes an international star. She realises that sooner rather than later her mother in Africa will learn that she sings. To solve this dilemma she goes back to her native village and arranges her own funeral, albeit with instantaneous rebirth. She is lying in the coffin while all invited guest form a queue and pass the coffin one by one. When she needs go to the toilet a boy will take her place. And then one of the guests says: How different she looks after having died. Is this an allusion to Bergman's movie "Now About These Women"?
- DirectorMahamat-Saleh HarounStarsAli BarkaiYoussouf DjaoroAziza HisseineChad, 2006. After a forty-year civil war, the radio announces the government has just amnestied the war criminals. Outraged by the news, Gumar Abatcha orders his grandson Atim, a sixteen-year-old youth, to trace the man who killed his father and to execute him. Atim obeys him and, armed with his father's own gun, he goes in search of Nassara, the man who made him an orphan. It does not take long before he finds him. Nassara, who now goes straight, is married, goes to the mosque and owns a small bakery. After some hesitation Atim offers him his services as an apprentice. He is hired then it will be easy for him to gun down the murderer of his father. At least, that is what he thinks...
- DirectorBalufu Bakupa-KanyindaStarsDieudonné KabongoCarole KaremeraKatik Donatien BakombaKongo 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.
- DirectorHaile GerimaStarsAaron ArefeAbiye TedlaTakelech BeyeneThe 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.
- DirectorClaire DenisStarsIsabelle HuppertChristopher LambertIsaach De BankoléAmidst turmoil and racial conflict in a Francophone African state, a white French woman fights for her coffee crop, her family and ultimately for her life.
- DirectorNacer KhemirStarsDenis GrilNacer KhemirGabriele ManndelkhanA man (played by the filmmaker Nacer Khemir) returns home to Tunisia to bury his mother. After the burial, his father gives him an "amana" to be handed to a certain Sheikh named Muhyiddin. Taken by his father's request, the man immediately sets out on an epic journey to find the long lost Sheikh and deliver the "amana." Throughout the trip, he is guided by a mysterious spiritual master and the many friends of the Sheikh he encounters along the way. As the adventure unfolds, we discover the rich life of this Sheikh and his uncompromising love for humanity. For under his teachings, different beliefs, faiths, and ways of life can only converge and become one. The more we learn about Sheikh Muhyiddin, the more we understand why he is venerated across cultures and continents. Looking for Muhyiddin is a deeply lyrical odyssey into the soul of Islam through the life and work of one of its beloved mystics: Ibn Arabi.
- DirectorRadwan El-KashefStarsSeif AbdelrahmanManal AfifiHamdy AhmedThis film is an exploration of what happens to places in general, and people in particular, once the menfolk abandon an Egyptian village to investigate the greener-grass on the proverbial 'other side'. The womenfolk, those too old and those too young are left behind... and as the years pass, only letters return, telling tales of loneliness and hard-times. A young man, Ahmed, grows-up under these surroundings and has to deal with being the de-facto man-in-charge; when several of the migrant workers return one day, everyone has to come to terms with things being forever changed.
- DirectorYoussef ChahineStarsFarid ShawqiHind RustumYoussef ChahineA newspaper salesman at the train station in Cairo develops an unhealthy obsession with a woman who sells refreshments.
- DirectorYousry NasrallahStarsRim TurkiOrwa NyrabiaBasel KhayyatIn the beginning was Palestine, and the story of Younes (Orwa Nyrabia) began, known as Abou Salem, known as the Man, said to be the father of Ibrahim, fighting the English from the age of 16, still fighting, but retrenched in the Lebanon, illegal in his own country ; the story of Nahila (Rim Turki) also began, married to him when she was twelve, breast-feeding their first child, born during the villagers' exhausting trek towards the North, fleeing their burning homes, Nahila whom he met secretly in a cave in Bab El Chams, in Galilee. Again it is the story of Doctor Khalil (Bassel Khayat), abandoned by his mother in the shambles of the refugee camps, who, in Beirut, rescued Younes in a deep coma, lulling him with the tragic story of his people ; and yet again it is that of Chams (Hala Omran) whom Khalil loved and was executed by his companions in arms. Fifty years of history full of suffering, hope and love.
- DirectorMarc AllégretA love partner of the writer André Gide, as well as his travel companion in their journey to the French colonies of Central Africa, Marc Allégret decided to film their 11-month wandering in the exotic continent, though stripping away the element of adventure. Contrary to the newly established type of documentaries, such as Nanook of the North, that made use of suspense to permeate the action with epic qualities, Allégret, despite having no prior training in cinema, proved to be a pioneer by creating a strictly ethnographically-driven type of documentary. His camera's approach is tactful as he captures the glance of a privileged white man in a world of natural and spiritual purity, paving the way to a new cinema genre.
- DirectorRuy GuerraStarsRomao CanapoqueleFilipe GunoguacalaMauricio MachimbucoOn 16 June 1960 in Mueda, Mozambique, the Portuguese army executed six hundred inhabitants on the orders of the Portuguese governor. Since the country's independence, Mueda's residents relive this event each year in a theatrical re-enactment, playing the roles of the assassins, victims and spectators. This film sets a historical landmark in the cinematic memory of decolonization and the Mozambican people's grieving process.
- DirectorRobert GardnerThe people portrayed in this film are called Hamar. They dwell in the thorny scrubland of southwestern Ethiopia. The film is an attempt to disclose not only the activities of the Hamar, but also the effect on mood and behavior, of a life governed by sexual inequality.
- DirectorRobert DarèneStarsMarina VladyJean ServaisPhilippe MoryAfter studying medicine in France, David comes back to his native Gabon to treat his compatriots. He meets Oyana, his former sweetheart, and both laugh at the old-fashioned traditions. The young physician is sent to the bush where he is to vaccinate the somewhat reluctant population. He meets Rispal, a white man who tells him there are things he ignores in his own country where legends, witches and superstitions abound. Most amazing thing, this embittered man has a wife, Isabelle, a beautiful woman who wanders through the bush.
- DirectorGavin LambertStarsCatherine LaceyAhmed Ben MohammedLee MontagueAfter a puritan youth, a young English woman discovers her sensuality in North-Africa.
- DirectorSarah MaldororStarsCarlos PestanaNoureddine DreisMohamed ZinetAbuses by the Portuguese slave traders in their colony of Angola are depicted through the torture of one prisoner, based on ignorance and incomprehension.
- DirectorSarah MaldororStarsElisa AndradeDomingos de OliveiraJean M'VondoA man is wrongfully arrested and tortured to death after he is suspected of being part of a revolutionary group.
- DirectorPeter KubelkaA trip to Africa is edited into a brief documentary without continuity between sound and image or story and time.
- DirectorFrédéric MitterrandStarsFrédéric MitterrandIt is a trip to Somalia during the summer of 1981 made by Frédéric Mitterand. Letters of love to a loved one, absent. The film mixes the collective history of Somalia with that of the narrator.
- DirectorRachid BoucharebStarsSotigui KouyatéSharon HopeRoschdy ZemAfter many years of having worked as a tour guide at the Senegalese slave museum, Alloune decides to go to America in search of his ancestors. They were taken away from his village 200 years ago and sold as slaves in the New World.
- DirectorSouheil Ben-BarkaStarsAbdou ChaibaneMimsy FarmerSi AhmedIn Morocco, an old dyer and his young son Miloud work transporting wool packs. So begins this story in the hands of thousands of old men, women and children involved in meticulous weaving carpets.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsJames KabaleWilfried KlausBetty MillerFilm about the doctors that fly all over central Africa to bring medical help to the people living in the bush.
- DirectorSidney SokhonaStarsSidney SokhonaJacques RuisseauConstant HamesA Mauritanian worker, Sidi, works in France. Like most immigrant workers, he is employed in the most arduous and dangerous jobs.
- DirectorIdrissa OuedraogoStarsRichard BohringerSaïd DiarraFélicité WouassiMoctar lives in Mali with his mother Saffi and his ailing grandfather. One day, Saffi receives a letter from France which overwhelms her with happiness. Ibrahim Sow, her husband and Moctar's father, who has emigrated there, can at last accommodate them. Mother and son say farewell to Grandpa, as he cannot follow them. When they arrive in Lyon, where Ibrahim is waiting for them, something strange happens. Moctar sees a hyena in a street... Of course, nobody believes him...
- DirectorDjibril Diop MambétyA somewhat-humorous look at the city of Dakar, its people, architecture, politics, social behavior, and even the white French tourists, and especially the influence of France's culture and its contrast with the indigenous culture of Senegal pre-colonization but still present in Dakar.
- DirectorSafi FayeStarsAssane FayeMaguette GueyeSafi FayeNgor 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.
- DirectorBorhane AlaouiéLotfi ThabetStarsHassan FathyThe Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy talks about his life and work. Footage of Cairo, Gharb Assouan, New Gourna, Kom-Ombo.
- DirectorAssia Djebarhis film essay pieces together various photographs and footage of the Zerda ceremony from colonial archives, with anonymous poetic voice-overs recounting the lived experiences of indigenous Algerians.
- StarsKeith DavidPeter EganJohn ShrapnelEGYPT'S GOLDEN EMPIRE comes to life through letters and records evoking the passion and riches of a time when Egypt was the center of the known world, its Pharaohs called gods, and great cities, temples and tombs built.
- DirectorJames BarratStarsKevin CollinsFrom PBS - Around 800 BC, Kush, a little-known subject state of Egypt, rose up and conquered the Egyptians, enthroned its own Pharaohs, and ruled over the empire of King Tut for nearly 100 years. This unlikely chapter of history has been buried by the Egyptians and belittled by early archaeologists, who refused to believe that dark skinned Africans could have risen so high. But now, in the heart of Sudan, archeologists Geoff Emberling and Tim Kendall are bringing the truth about the Black Pharaohs to life. In a royal tomb beneath an ancient Kush pyramid and at the soaring heights of a mountain sacred to both Kushites and Egyptians, they are finding indisputable evidence of an advanced African society with powerful armies, vast reach, and spiritually-driven imperial aspirations that rival the Egyptians.
- DirectorMalek BensmaïlStarsBrahim HadjadjGillo PontecorvoYacef SaadiThe Battle of Algiers is one of the most celebrated films of all time. Made in 1966, it documented Algeria's war for independence. Returning to the roots of the production and the personalities involved, this documentary explores what made the film so profound, as well as the controversies surrounding it. Was the truth it was intent on recounting warped by the filmmakers' proximity to the subject?
- DirectorPier Paolo PasoliniStarsPier Paolo PasoliniDocumentary footage of the city of Sana'a in Yemen, one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world, with a voice-over calling for UNESCO to protect the city's architectural heritage before it is destroyed by development.
- DirectorJean RouchThis short documents the preparation of a musical event, a ritual associated in this African community with a marriage ceremony.
- DirectorNicolas HumbertWerner PenzelStarsRobert LaxAghail Ag RhissaMutu Walat RhabidineThe film is a documentary or even a cinepoem which follows the life of nowadays nomads: The Tuareg in North Africa, a circus company and the American philosopher and poet 'Robert Lax'.
- DirectorJohan van der KeukenAfter the famous Dutch documentary filmmaker Johan van der Keuken is told that he has prostate cancer and only a few years left to live he decides to take an extended vacation while filming his journeys so the afterworld can learn about his experiences. He travels to Kathmandu where he meets buddhist monks and a healer woman who soon is trying to medicate him, to Burkina Faso and Mali onto the edge of the Sahara desert and other places. Everywhere he is collecting experiences that help make the rest of his life bearable.
- DirectorNikolaus GeyrhalterDuring the year 2000 Geyrhalter and his teams travelled to a different destination each month, looking for places untouched by the millennium hysteria. Locations include Niger, Finland, Micronesia, Australia, China, Siberia or Greenland.
- DirectorYoussef ChahineStarsOussama NadirMohsen MohieddinNour El-SherifIn the middle of his own heart surgery, an Egyptian filmmaker remembers his life. In fact his old self, as a child, is accused of the attempted murder of his new self. Through the metaphoric trial, we are drawn into his life in relation to the Egyptian revolution, his constant need for success, and the effect the American Dream has on him.