Film Africa 2024 celebrates the best of African cinema during Black History Month

The Royal African Society announce that Film Africa (25 Oct – 3 Nov), one of the most anticipated and celebrated showcases of African cinema in Europe, will return for its 2024 edition during Black History Month.

For ten exciting days, Film Africa will transform London into a bustling hub of African cinema, with screenings taking place at some of the city’s most prestigious venues. Bringing together visionary filmmakers from over 20 African countries and the diaspora, from Morocco to Madagascar, Sierra Leone to Senegal, Film Africa is an unparalleled showcase of contemporary African cinema, highlighting the diverse narratives and innovative spirit thriving across the continent today.

These include films from new talent (After the Long Rains by 23-year-old Swiss-Kenyan director Damien Hauser) as well as restored classics (Mandabi by Ousmane Sembène “the father of African cinema”), queer cinema (Nyame Mma by Joewackle J Kusi) and over a third of films directed by women.

“African cinema is flourishing and this year’s festival has a line-up of over 70 films, from captivating features that tackle complex social issues, compelling documentaries that uncover untold stories, and innovative shorts from cutting-edge talent. Audiences will travel through the rich terrains of African storytelling, witnessing firsthand the creativity and indomitable spirit that defines African cinema today”, said Keith Shiri, Lead Curator of Film Africa 2024.

Opening & Closing Films

Opening the festival on Gala night (BFI Southbank, 25 Oct) is Dahomey (2024, France/Senegal/Benin) directed by Senegalese filmmaker Mati Diop and winner of the Golden Bear at the 2024 Berlinale. The documentary presents a dramatised account of the return of 26 royal treasures from a museum in France to their rightful home, delving into the complexities of cultural repatriation and restitution, a theme which runs throughout the festival. Dahomey will also screen at the Ciné Lumière (27 Oct).

Closing the festival for its UK premiere is Black Tea (2024, France/Mauritania/Luxembourg/Taiwan/Ivory Coast), another Berlinale finalist (BFI Southbank, 3 Nov). Black Tea is a poignant romantic drama by acclaimed Mauritanian director Abderrahmane Sissako. Starring Nina Mélo and Chang Han, the film follows the journey of a young Ivorian woman embarking on a transformative odyssey to China, where she finds unexpected love.

One of the festival’s most anticipated events (Ciné Lumière, 2 Nov) is an unscripted discussion between award-winning filmmaker and artist Abderrahmane Sissako (Black Tea) and filmmaker Sir John Akomfrah (Handsworth Songs), who recently represented Britain at the Venice Biennale. The pair will discuss their celebrated careers, having respected and followed each other’s work for decades.

Contemporary African Cinema

For his third feature After the Long Rains (2024, Kenya), 23-year-old Swiss-Kenyan director Damien Hauser was influenced by Studio Ghibli (Barbican, 3 Nov). The tender coming-of-age story follows Aisha (Electricer Kache Hamisi), a ten-year-old Kenyan girl who dreams of becoming an actress. Determined to buck village tradition, she befriends a fisherman to get a job on a boat so she can sail to Europe.

Screening at the Rich Mix in Bethnal Green (28 Oct) and the Barbican (30 Oct) is On Becoming a Guinea Fowl (2024, Ireland/United Kingdom/United States/Zambia), directed by BAFTA award-winning Zambian-Welsh director Rungano Nyoni. The dark comedy-drama follows Shula (Susan Chardy), who after finding the body of her uncle begins to address the hidden sexual abuse and buried secrets of her traditional, middle-class Zambian family. The film won the Cannes Un Certain Regard Best Director award (2024).

Rosine Mbakam, an award-winning Cameroonian filmmaker, joins the line-up with her uplifting feature debut Mambar Pierrette (2023, Belgium/Cameroon). The film follows a talented and resilient seamstress in Cameroon (played by non-professional actor, Pierrette Aboheu Njeuthat) as she struggles to support her children and mother (30 Oct, Rich Mix). Sara Chitambo’s debut feature Black People Don’t Get Depressed (2024, ​​South Africa/Nigeria/Canada) addresses the stigmas of mental illness in Black and African communities as the filmmaker faces her depression head-on (Rich Mix, 3 Nov).

Disco Afrika: A Malagasy Story (2023, France/Madagascar/Germany/Mauritius/Qatar/South Africa) follows Kwame (Delanoël Parista Sambo), a sapphire miner, who returns to his home village where he reconnects with his community’s decades-long fight against corruption. The film is directed by Luck Razanajaona, who provides Madagascar with its first-ever selection for a major international festival featuring at Berlin and Toronto (Rich Mix, 31 Oct).

Screening at the Garden Cinema (2 Nov) is Nabil Ayouch’s Everybody Loves Touda (2024, Morocco / France / Belgium / Denmark / Netherlands / Norway). The film follows Touda (Nisrin Erradi), a single mother who performs in dingy bars to make ends meet but longs to become a traditional Moroccan singer and dancer (Sheikha) to give her deaf-and-mute son (Joud Chamihy) a better life.

The Legend of the Vagabond Queen of Lagos (29 Oct, Peckhamplex, Hackney Picturehouse, 2 Nov) by Nigerian filmmaking force The Agbajowo Collective (2024, Nigeria/Germany/South Africa/United States) is based on the real-life events between November 2016 and April 2017, where Lagos state authorities forcibly and violently evicted more than 30,000 residents from the Otodo-Gbame community, an informal fishing settlement on the outskirts of Lagos city. The film follows a young mother (Temiloluwa Ami-Williams) from a waterfront slum who stumbles upon a hoard of corrupt blood money. The filmmaking collective comprises seven directors: James Tayler, Ogungbamila Temitope, Okechukwu Samuel, Mathew Cerf, Edukpo Tina, Bisola Akinmuyiwa and A.S. Elijah.

Documentaries

Mother of All Lies (2023, Morocco/Egypt/Qatar/Saudi Arabia) is an Arabic-language documentary directed by Asmae El Moudir (Rich Mix, 2 Nov). The film, which took eight years to make, explores El Moudir’s search for truth in her family’s background. El Moudir crafts a set of miniature clay figurines to recreate her childhood street in Casablanca, Morocco. Family, friends, and neighbours interact with the miniatures, reflecting upon their past to unravel their collective history, in particular the 1981 Casablanca Bread Riots which resulted in the massacre of many residents. El Moudir won the Un Certain Regard Best Director award at Cannes for the film.

Home of UK documentary, Bertha DocHouse, is screening Billy Woodberry’s documentary Mário (2024, France) on 2 November, which explores the legacy of Mário Pinto de Andrade, a key figure in African revolutionary and anti-colonial struggles. Spending a life in exile, he fought tirelessly for African sovereignty. Woodberry is one of the leading directors of the L.A. Rebellion film movement, a generation of young African and African-American filmmakers who created a black alternative to Hollywood. Tongo Saa (Rising Up at Night) (2024, Democratic Republic of the Congo/Belgium/Germany/Burkina Faso/Qatar) by Nelson Makengo follows the residents of Kinshasa after plans to build the largest power plant in the Congo plunge 17 million people into darkness and insecurity (Bertha DocHouse, 2 Nov).

Restored African Classics

At the Ciné Lumière in South Kensington (26 Oct – 3 Nov) Film Africa will showcase films restored by The World Cinema Project, a non-profit founded by Martin Scorsese in 1995 to preserve seminal films from around the world.

These include the groundbreaking Mandabi (1968, France/Senegal), the first-ever feature shot in an African language (Wolof), directed by Ousmane Sembène (28 Oct). Also screening is Chronicle of the Years of Fire (1975, Algeria), directed by Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina. This historical drama, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, portrays the Algerian War of Independence (1954–1962) through the eyes of a peasant (27 Oct). Another notable screening is Timité Bassori’s The Knife Woman (La Femme Au Couteau) (1969, Ivory Coast), an African classic which follows an Ivorian man (played by Bassori himself) haunted by visions of a mysterious woman with a knife symbolising Africa’s struggle to reclaim its cultural heritage (28 Oct).

Complementing the screening programme at Ciné Lumière will be a symposium on African film restoration on 26 October. This event will feature practitioners and industry leaders from the world of film restoration and archiving, including Didi Cheeka (researcher and archivist), Pedro Pimenta (producer and archivist), Cecilia Cenciarelli (Cineteca di Bologna), and Aboubakar Sanogo (AFHP/FEPACI), moderated by Dr June Givanni, a pioneering international film archivist and founder of the June Givanni PanAfrican Cinema Archive.

“Acknowledging the historical challenges faced by African filmmakers in preserving their cinematic heritage, the symposium aims to shine a light on current efforts to restore and repatriate Africa’s rich film legacy. Bringing together experts, industry leaders, and policy-makers, this symposium will not only explore the technical and cultural facets of film restoration but also delve into the broader questions of ownership, preservation, and the ethical dimensions of cultural restitution. This critical conversation will provide invaluable insights into how we can collectively ensure that the artistry of African filmmakers continues to be celebrated and accessible for generations to come.” – said Keith Shiri.

Short Films

Film Africa’s ‘Dine & View’ shorts programme will be held at the South London Gallery in Peckham (26 Oct – 2 Nov). Films will be accompanied by African cuisine and explore themes from gender, sexuality and love, to climate change, migration and African politics. Among the lineup is Gboroka (2024, Sierra Leone) by Hickmatu Bintu Leigh, a thought-provoking insight into the rich tapestry of the Bondo culture, an all-female secret society in West Africa, and its relationship to female genital mutilation (FGM).

Black Corporeal (Breathing by Numbers) (2022) is a powerful art film by acclaimed artist and South London poet Julianknxx, highlighting the disproportionate impact of air pollution in inner-city London. The film is anchored by the voice of grassroots campaigner Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah CBE, whose 9-year-old daughter Ella was the first person in the world to have air pollution listed as a cause of death.

The programme also showcases short films about queer Ghanaian lives, exploring familial, platonic and romantic relationships amid increased tensions incited by anti-LGBTQ+ politics in Ghana. Nyame Mma or ‘Children of God’ (2024) follows Kwamena (Kobina Amissah-Sam) a young man who returns home after his father’s sudden death. The film offers a nuanced perspective on how isolating grief can be for queer, African men. Director Joewackle J Kusi was in the process of finishing the film when an anti-LGBTQ+ bill was passed in Ghana, putting cast and crew at risk. The award-winning film Reluctantly Queer (2016) was directed by Akosua Adoma Owusu and follows a young Ghanaian man (Kwame Edwin Otu) who struggles to reconcile love for his mother with his sexuality. Dzifa (2022) is an intimate drama directed by Savannah Acquah, which follows a queer couple as they navigate the nuances of their relationship. The film explores the multifaceted experiences of young black queer people living in the UK, rewriting depictions of a solely homophobic West African ‘Motherland’.

The shorts programme also includes animation, music, Afro-surrealism and French cinema.

Industry Events, Workshops & More

Workshops include Film Lab Africa (31 Oct), a panel showcasing emerging young talent from Lagos, Nigeria, co-hosted by the British Arts Council. This is a cornerstone of the British Council’s Creative Economy initiative, designed to nurture emerging filmmakers and TV producers in Nigeria.

Film Africa LIVE! (26 Oct) at the Ritzy in Brixton will provide an opportunity to celebrate the vibrant musical creativity of African cinema. Attendees will be serenaded by soulful tunes, escalating to an electrifying dance party with a DJ. To complement the festivities, drinks and a variety of delicious African cuisine will be served.

Film Africa is proud to support emerging talent in African cinema through prestigious awards such as the Baobab Award for Best Short Film and the Audience Award for Best Feature Film. These honours aim to spotlight up-and-coming filmmakers, providing a platform to showcase their work to a global audience. Winners of each category will be awarded $2500 for each prize, sponsored by Rolling Stone Africa.

The festival is suitable for families, featuring children’s animation Lady Buckit and the Motley Mopsters (2020, Nigeria) at the Ciné Lumière, the first Nigerian feature-length animated film directed by Adebisi Adetayo (3 Nov). A selection of films from the festival will also be available on BFI Player.