DE CIERTA MANERA

• Director Sara Gómez ;
• Cuba 1975
• With Yolanda Cuéllar, Mario Balmaseda.
• digital (restoration), 79 min. EST
• A schoolteacher grapples with the socio-political changes in her country. Gómez’s only feature was also the first film to be directed by an Afro-Cuban woman. Weaving documentary footage with a fictional narrative, revealing transformations taking place in Cuba after the Revolution, it is also a critical study of the female condition.

Restoration courtesy of Arsenal – Institut für Film und Videokunst e.V.

Muna Moto (L’enfant de l’autre)

• Director Jean-Pierre Dikongue Pipa,
• long-métrage (fiction), Cameroun
• Dikongué Pipa’s masterpiece of subversive modernity, a non-linear tale of a love made impossible by social and economic pressures, was Cameroon’s first feature film.
• Awarded the top prize at FESPACO 1976, its haunting images revealing the devastating consequences of a community’s refusal to deviate from tradition resonated strongly with audiences.
• Contains scenes of domestic violence
• Restored by Cineteca di Bologna/L’Immagine Ritrovata and The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project. Funding provided by the George Lucas Family Foundation. This restoration is part of the African Film Heritage Project, created by The Film Foundation, FEPACI and UNESCO – in collaboration with Cineteca di Bologna – to help locate, restore, and disseminate African cinema.

Den Muso (The Young Girl)

• Mali 1975.
• Director Souleymane Cissé.
• With Dounamba Dany Coulibaly, Omou Diarra, Balla Moussa Kieita, Fanta Diabate.
• 88min. Digital. EST
• Tenin, a young mute girl, is assaulted on a night out. She subsequently becomes pregnant and faces both the morality of her family and the cowardice of her attacker, who refuses to recognise the child. Unfolding at a time when Mali struggled with the impact of rapid modernisation, this first feature from the master of Malian cinema, later known for the multi-awarded Yeelen and Finye, resulted in his imprisonment and the film being banned.
• Contains scenes of sexual violence
• Den Muso was restored by Souleymane Cissé and La Cinémathèque française in 2020, in collaboration with the Cinémathèque Afrique and the French Institute, thanks to the support of Pathé. The restoration work was carried out at the Hiventy laboratory using the original negatives and 16mm magnetic tapes

Polisario, A People in Arms Polisario, un peuple en armes

• France-Mauritania 1978.
• Director Med Hondo.
• 85min. Digital. EST
• Made in support of the Sahrawi people’s right to self-determination in Western Sahara, Hondo’s striking film foregrounds battles that the crew experienced.
• Co-produced by Algerian television, it’s a chronicle of a last clash between Morocco and the Polisario, a rebel Sahrawi nationalist liberation movement.

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Rain Nyesha

• USA 1978.
• Director Melvonna Ballenger.
• 16min. Digital
• A short drama, inspired by John Coltrane’s song, about a female typist who is enlightened by a street campaigner.
• Tickets £6.50

Nahla

• Algeria 1979.
• Director Farouk Beloufa.
• With Yasmine Khlat,
• Nabila Zeitouni, Roger Assaf. 114min. Digital. EST
• A cult film for all lovers of Algerian cinema, Beloufa’s first and only feature paints a magnificent portrait of a star caught up in the turmoil of the war in Lebanon. Yasmine Khlat, later to become an acclaimed writer, won Best Actress at Moscow Film Festival 1979 for her portrayal of the eponymous singer

Bless Their Little Hearts

• USA 1984.
• Director Billy Woodberry.
• With Nate Hardman,
• Kaycee Moore. 80min. Digital
• Directed with impressive boldness and supported by a remarkable cast, this film probes the domestic conjugal relationship to the bone, employing a black and white aesthetic. Woodberry was a leading member of the LA Rebellion, an African-American film movement founded at UCLA in the late 1960s. It also included Charles Burnett (Killer of Sheep), who wrote and shot the film.
• Film restoration by Ross Lipman with Billy Woodberry at UCLA Film & Television Archive.
• Also on BFIPLAYER

Mortu Nega (Those Who Death Refused)

• Director Flora Gomes.
• Guinea Bissau-Portugal 1988.
• With Bia Gomes, Tunu Eugenio Almada.
• 85min. 35mm. EST
• In 1973, young Diminga attempts to join her husband Sako on the front line of Amilcar Cabral’s freedom fighters, the PAIGC (African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde). Walking through the bush with the fighters, she struggles to remain optimistic as she sees her country in ruins. A festival favourite, Gomes’ film was one of the first to deal with former Portuguese colonies’ liberation wars
• FILMonFILM

Bezness

• France–Tunisia-Germany 1992.
• Director Nouri Bouzid.
• With Ghalya Lacroix, Abdellatif Kechiche, Ahmed Ragoubi,
• Jacques Penot. 110min. Digital. EST
• Set in the scenic coastal city of Sousse, this controversial and thought-provoking drama follows the fate of Roufa, a young man who dreams of escape to Europe. He is a sex worker who appeals to tourists’ desire for the exotic, although he remains betrothed to Khomsa. She in turn attracts the attentions of a visiting photographer. One of the first Arab films to deal with gay themes and gender segregation, it also grapples with the destructive impact of Western tourism on Tunisian society

Bye Bye Africa

• Chad 1999.
• Director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun.
• With Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, Garba Issa.
• 86min. Digital. EST
• Haroun’s semi-autobiographical debut tells the story of a filmmaker who returns to Ndjamena, Chad, following the death of his mother. Determined to shoot a film there, he is confronted by the terrible state of the country and also notes the decline of film culture across the wider continent.
• Blurring the lines between fact and fiction, Haroun captures Chad at the end of the 20th century and in the throes of a civil war that unfolds amid the ruins of Western colonialism. Please join us after the screening for a discussion with film curator Abiba Coulibaly and other guests to be announced.

Shirley Adams

• South Africa 2009.
• Director Oliver Hermanus.
• With Denise Newman, Keenan Arrison, Emily Child.
• 92min. Digital
• A powerful lead performance carries this striking debut. A mother, abandoned by her husband, cares for her disabled son, who was an innocent victim of gang violence. Their life on the outskirts of Cape Town is a daily struggle, navigating the impact of Apartheid, poverty and a lack of agency. Internationally acclaimed, Hermanus’ drama is an unflinching portrayal of courage in contemporary South Africa.

Firstborn (Eersgeborene)

• South Africa 2009.
• Director Étienne Kallos.
• 27min. Digital. EST
• A gripping indictment of homophobia, set against the brutal backdrop of a South African farm that hides a multitude of family secrets.

Bled Number One

• Algeria–France 2006.
• Director Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche.
• With Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche, Meriem Serbah.
• 102min. 35mm/Digital EST
• Just released from a French prison, Kamel is deported to his native Algeria, a place he now barely recognises. At first welcoming the altered pace of village (bled) life, he feels increasingly alienated by its sexism and violent intolerance, and gradually plots his escape.
  Shot in a low-key, semi-documentary style, this compelling realist drama comments on the frictions between tradition and modernity in contemporary Algeria

• La Residence Ylang Ylang
• Comoros 2008.
• Director Hachimiya Ahamada.
• 20min. Digital. EST
• Pumzi
• Kenya 2009.
• Director Wanuri Kahiu.
• 23min. Digital
• Me broni ba
• Ghana–UK 2009.
• Director Akosua Adoma Owusu.
• 22min. Digital. EST
• Tinye So
• Mali 2009.
• Director Daouda Coulibaly.
• 25min. Digita

Coming Forth By Day Al-khoroug lel-nahar

• Egypt–UAE 2012.
• Director Hala Lotfy.
• With Donia Maher, Salma Al-Naggar.
• 96min. Digital. EST. PG
• Shot amid the turmoil of revolution, this impressive debut takes place in the suburbs of Cairo and traces one day in the life of a daughter as she and her mother struggle to look after her father, who is housebound following a stroke. Echoing the work of Chantal Akerman, Lofty’s film is noted for its disorientating use of space and time to convey the solitude and claustrophobia of life.

Félicité

• Senegal–France–Belgium–DR Congo 2017.
• Director Alain Gomis.
• With Véro Tshanda Beya, Papy Mpaka.
• 123min. Digital. 12A
• Félicité, a free and proud singer in a Kinshasa bar, has her life turned upside down when her 14-year-old son is involved in a motorcycling accident. This complex, sensitive and sensual portrait of a woman fighting adversity is set against a vibrant portrait of a city. It also features a tremendous score by Kasai All Stars and Orchestre Symphonique Kimbanguiste.

Night of the Kings
La Nuit des rois

• Ivory Coast–France–Canada–Senegal 2020.
• Director Philippe Lacôte.
• With Bakary Koné, Steve Tientcheu.
• 93min. Digital. EST. 15
• In an overcrowded West African prison, a sick and ageing crime lord struggles to maintain power. He believes his strength will be bolstered through the rekindling of a ritual that forces a prisoner to tell stories throughout an entire night.
• Also on BFIPLAYER

Faya Dayi

• Ethiopia–USA–Qatar 2021.
• Director Jessica Beshir.
• With Mohammed Arif, Hashim Abdi.
• 120min. Digital. 12A
• This hypnotic portrait of life amongst Ethiopia’s Oromo and Harari communities examines the importance of their most lucrative crop, khat. The leaf has been chewed for centuries, for religious and spiritual mediation, and for pleasure. Beshir’s immersive film captures intimate moments in the lives of the community, recording everyday experiences and the yearning for liberation. Atmospheric chiaroscuro photography combines with an intoxicating score to create a unique cinematic experience