African Cinema
A list of African films spanning from the 1960s to present day.
This list contains both feature films and shorts and contains movies from a range of African countries including Senegal, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Togo, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Côte d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Gambia, Somalia, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Angola, Namibia, Ghana, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, Chad and CAR.
This list contains both feature films and shorts and contains movies from a range of African countries including Senegal, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Togo, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Côte d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Gambia, Somalia, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Angola, Namibia, Ghana, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, Chad and CAR.
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- DirectorOusmane SembeneStarsThierno LeyeMyriam NiangSeune SambA corrupt politician is cursed with impotence on the night of his third wedding after embezzling 100 tons of rice.Senegal
Probably one of Ousmane Sembène most famous films. Set in the 1970s, Xala's plot centralises around El Hadji Abdoukader Beye, a Senegalese businessman who is about to marry his second wife Ngoné but finds that he is suffering from impotency. This films primary themes include tradition vs. modernity, class divisions and the corruption of post-colonial Senegalese officials in the early years of Independence. - DirectorDjibril Diop MambétyStarsMoussa BaldéLissa BaleraAminata FallA girl sells copies of Soleil, the government paper.Senegal
One of only two feature films made by Djibril Diop Mambéty, La Petite Vendeuse de Soleil is set in the late 1990s and focuses around Sili, a young beggar who sells newspapers on the streets of Dakar which is an occupation always occupied by boys. This films themes concentrate on disability and sexism in Senegalese contemporary society, the courage of street children and solidarity between the working classes. Reviewer for The New York Times, A.O. Scott described the film as a "masterpiece of understated humanity. - DirectorRamadan SulemanStarsPamela NomveteMpumi MalatsiSophie MgcinaA militant tribute to the commitment of South African women, carried by a fierce energy marked with rage and despair.
- DirectorWanuri KahiuStarsSamantha MugatsiaNeville MisatiNice Githinji"Good Kenyan girls become good Kenyan wives," but Kena and Ziki long for something more. When love blossoms between them, the two girls will be forced to choose between happiness and safety.Kenya.
Direct Wanuri Kahiu's third film, Rafiki is a film about love and homophobia in modern Kenya. Set in Nairobi, Kena helps her father John Mwaura run a small convenience store as he campaigns for a local election. Kena lives with her mother, who isn't really on speaking terms with John. Kena starts flirting with Ziki, a neighbourhood girl with colourful hair, who also happens to be the daughter of Peter Okemi, John's political rival. This film received funding from France and the Netherlands and was selected to premiere at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. - 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.Senegal
Hyenas is the first of only two of Djibril Diop Mambéty's feature films (the second being La Petite Vendeuse de Soleil). Hyenas is an adaptation of Friedrich Dürrenmatt's Swiss-German satirical tragicomedy play The Visit (1956). Hyenas tells the story of Linguere Ramatou, an aging, wealthy woman who revisits her home village of Colobane. Linguere offers a disturbing proposition to the people of Colobane and lavishes luxuries upon them to persuade them. This embittered woman, "as rich as the World Bank", will bestow upon Colobane a fortune in exchange for the murder of Dramaan Drameh, a local shopkeeper who abandoned her after a love affair and her illegitimate pregnancy when she was sixteen. Hyenas was nominated for the Golden Palm Award at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival. - 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- DirectorMohammed Lakhdar-HaminaStarsYorgo VoyagisMohammed Lakhdar-HaminaLeila ShennaA meticulous chronicle of the evolution of the Algerian liberation national movement. The film demonstrates that the Algerian War was a slow process of revolts and suffering, uninterrupted, from the start of colonization of Algeria in 1830
- 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.
- DirectorAbderrahmane SissakoStarsKhatra Ould Abder KaderMaata Ould Mohamed AbeidMohamed Mahmoud Ould MohamedThe story of two people who cross paths in Nouhadhibou.
- DirectorGavin HoodStarsPresley ChweneyagaeMothusi MaganoIsrael Matseke-ZuluSix days in the violent life of a young Johannesburg gang leader.Tsoti is the 4th movie of South African director Gavin Hood. The soundtrack features Kwaito music performed by South African artist Zola as well as a score by Mark Kilian and Paul Hepker featuring the voice of South African protest singer and poet Vusi Mahlasela. Set in an Alexandra slum, in Johannesburg, South Africa, the film tells the story of Tsotsi, a young street thug who steals a car only to discover a baby in the back seat. The primary themes centre around redemption, pessimism, crime, violence and aids. The film won the 2006 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film in 2006. In 2009, it was unofficially remade India in the Tamil language as Yogi.
- DirectorYoussef ChahineStarsFarid ShawqiHind RustumYoussef ChahineA newspaper salesman at the train station in Cairo develops an unhealthy obsession with a woman who sells refreshments.
- DirectorNoaz DesheStarsHamisi BaziliJames GayoGlory MbayuwayuThe story of Alias, a young Albino on the run, hunted by local witch doctors who use Albinos body parts for their potions.White Shadow is the 2nd feature film of director Noaz Deshe. It received funding from Germany, Italy and Tanzania. The plot centres around Alias, a young Albino, is on the run from the local doctors, who are hunting Albinos to use their body parts for potions (the hunting of albinos being a contentious social phenomenon in contemporary Tanzanian society). The themes of this movie centre around witchcraft, disability, albinism, family and violence.
- DirectorDani KouyatéStarsSeydou BoroHamed DickoAbdoulaye KomboudriA storyteller named Djeliba comes to the town of a young boy named Mabo with promises that he will reveal the origin of the boy's ancestry.
- DirectorOusmane SembeneStarsMbissine Thérèse DiopAnne-Marie JelinekRobert FontaineA black girl from Senegal becomes a servant in France.Ousmane Sembene's 3rd film, La noire de centres on Diouana, a young Senegalese woman, who moves from Dakar (Senegal) to Antibes, (France) to work for a rich French couple. In France, Diouana hopes to continue her former nanny job and anticipates a cosmopolitan lifestyle. But from her arrival in Antibes, Diouana experiences harsh treatment from the couple, who force her to work as a servant. She becomes increasingly aware of her constrained and alienated situation and starts to question her life in France. The themes in this move centre around colonialism and post-colonial identities, racism, disillusion, exploitation and regret.
- DirectorJustin ChadwickStarsNaomie HarrisOliver LitondoTony KgorogeThe story of an 84 year-old Kenyan villager and ex Mau Mau veteran who fights for his right to go to school for the first time to get the education he could never afford.
- DirectorDavid 'Tosh' GitongaStarsJoseph WairimuOlwenya MainaShix KapyengaA young, aspiring actor from upcountry Kenya dreams of becoming a success in the big city. In pursuit of this and to the chagrin of his brother and parents, he makes his way to Nairobi:the city of opportunity.
- DirectorMahamat-Saleh HarounStarsYoussouf DjaoroDiouc KomaEmile Abossolo M'boPresent-day Chad. Adam, fifty-five, a former swimming champion, is pool attendant at a smart N'Djamena hotel. When the hotel gets taken over by new Chinese owners, he is forced to give up his job to his son Abdel. Terribly resentful, he feels socially humiliated. The country is in the throes of a civil war. Rebel forces are attacking the government. The authorities demand that the population contribute to the "war effort", giving money or volunteers old enough to fight off the assailants. The District Chief constantly harasses Adam for his contribution. But Adam is penniless; he only has his son....
- DirectorAna Lúcia Ramos LisboaStarsAna Maria CabralIva CabralDocumentary about African freedom fighter Amílcar Cabral, whose story is told by his relatives and friends. Amílcar, besides being a humanist and nationalist, was also a brilliant poet.
- DirectorJamie UysStarsN!xauMarius WeyersSandra PrinslooA comic allegory about a traveling Bushman who encounters modern civilization and its stranger aspects, including a clumsy scientist and a band of revolutionaries.
- DirectorGillo PontecorvoStarsBrahim HadjadjJean MartinYacef SaadiIn the 1950s, fear and violence escalate as the people of Algiers fight for independence from the French government.
- DirectorMaria João GangaStarsJoão RoldanDomingos Fernandes FonsecaJúlia BotelhoA group of children, fleeing the war, is taken to Luanda accompanied by a nun. When they reach the airplane, 11-year-old N'dala decides to leave the group and to explore the city. The nun then starts her unceasing quest for the missing boy. N'dala, carrying only a textile bag and a toy car made of wire, walks through the busy streets filled with people and traffic. Later he finds the tranquility of the beach, where he meets the old fisherman Antonio, with whom he becomes friends. Not much later, he meets the lively, whimsical Zé, who is a little older than he is. N'dala starts to experience the city and its inhabitants as increasingly forbidding and he would most like to return to his countryside. Then he meets Joka, a fringe figure who persuades him to help with a robbery in exchange for money. With this film, Maria Joao Ganga wanted to provide a realistic sketch of the bitter political situation in Angola. One of her most important motivations for making In the Empty City was to provide a picture of an African city without awakening feelings of a patronizing sympathy or associations with the sensationalism of war.
- DirectorOliver SchmitzStarsThomas MogotlaneMarcel van HeerdenThembi MtshaliMapantsula tells the story of Panic, a petty gangster who inevitably becomes caught up in the growing anti-apartheid struggle and has to choose between individual gain and a united stand against the system.
- DirectorJeremy XidoStarsSonia FerreiraWilker FloresDEATH METAL ANGOLA follows a loving Angolan couple, Sonia and Wilker, whose love for death metal music is bringing hope to the town and children of Huambo, and Angola as a country. The devastating reality of Angola's history of wars, and civil unrest has left the country's people torn, broken, and starving for something to give them peace. Sonia, and Wilker's dream to put on the first national rock festival ignites the emotions of the Angolan people, and helps them heal from the war stricken path Angola has left behind. This engaging reality of Angola touches the heart of the viewer, and sheds new light on a music genre that is not well understood.