#african films
The Burial of Kojo (2018 film by Blitz Bazawule)
In Conversation: The Cast & Crew of ‘The Burial of Kojo’ On Representation, Power & Filming in Ghana
Lingui, The Sacred Bonds (2021 film)
Chadian master Mahamat-Saleh Haroun’s latest is a generous exploration of the intricate support networks women weave to survive the harsh laws of men.
Chadian cinematic pioneer Mahamat-Saleh Haroun (A Season in France, TIFF ’17) returns to the Festival with his latest triumph, a bold portrait of a commonly silenced struggle cast unexpectedly out into the open.
Amina (Achouackh Abakar Souleymane), a craftswoman living in the outskirts of N’Djamena, has built a life of her own since being exiled from her family for having a child young and unwed. Now 15, her daughter Maria (Rihane Khalil Alio) has been expelled from school for her own pregnancy. Refusing the price women are often expected to pay with their bodies, Maria decides she will have an abortion despite it being illegal in Chad and forbidden in Islam. However determined her battle may be, Amina insists her daughter will not face it alone.
This time bringing a distinct look into the hidden life-worlds of women living overexposed to the whims of men, Haroun presents an ode to the quiet care engineered relationtionally, in spite of perilous scrutiny. This journey flows unpredictably through the networks women weave to survive too frequent life-threatening violence and unrelenting patriarchal social control. Effortlessly evocative, stunning in its weighted use of silence and reserved perspective, Lingui observes what it means to rely on another as a way of being in the world, where there is commitment to imagining possibilities as much as to creating them when and where they are foreclosed.
NATALEAH HUNTER-YOUNG
taken from: https://www.tiff.net/events/lingui-the-sacred-bonds
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The Blue Eyes of Yonta / Udju azul de Yonta (1991/2 film by Flora Gomes)
Yonta is a beautiful young woman growing up in the city of Bissau, a generation after her nation has gained independence. She develops a secret crush on Vincente, a good friend of her family and a hero of their country’s struggle, beginning a story of unrequited love in the developing city. Meanwhile, Yonta herself has a secret admirer, a shy young man names Zé, who sends her love letters copied from a Scandinavian book. It is from one such letter that the film gets its title. A lovely, delicate work about youthful illusions, both personal and national, that powerfully demonstrates director Flora Gomes’s marvelous talent for eliciting wonderfully nuanced performances. Only the second film from Guinea Bissau and Gomes, The Blue Eyes of Yonta shows us how alike we all are when it comes to matters of the heart.
taken from: https://africanfilmny.org/films/the-blue-eyes-of-yonta-udju-azul-de-yonta/
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Borders / Frontières (2017 film by by Apolline Traoré)
On a bus en route from Dakar, Senegal, to Lagos, Nigeria, four resourceful women must band together as they navigate the risks that come with traveling alone while female, fighting back against threats of violence, sexual harassment and government corruption at each border crossing. This slice-of-life drama from Burkinabé director, Apolline Traoré, pays tribute to the bravery of West African women asserting their independence in a patriarchal society. Borders won three prizes at FESPACO 2017, including the Paul Robeson Prize for the Best Film by a Director from the African Diaspora.
from: https://africanfilmny.org/films/borders-frontieres/
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