Today at Film Africa – Thursday 31 October
4:00 PM | RICH MIX
A Summer In Boujad (Un été à Boujad) directed by Omar Mouldouira
Seven years after the death of his mother, 13-year-old Karim has left Paris for Morocco with his father Messaoud, who has remarried and decided to return to his homeland. After a year at a French boarding school in Casablanca, Karim joins the newly blended family – including his new half-brother, stepmother and his father’s mother-in-law – for the summer in Boujad, a small town in central Morocco. Already muddled by the anxieties of adolescence, Karim struggles to understand their world and establish his place in a family of strangers.
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6:00 PM | RICH MIX
Money, Freedom, a Story of the CFA Franc directed by Katy Lena Ndiaye
Initially rolled out in the 1940s, the Colonies françaises d’Afrique (CFA—“French colonies of Africa”) franc was linked to and controlled by the colonial power. Behind the facade of creating economic sovereignty, the CFA franc provided France with economic incentives that continued to build the wealth of the nation long past its presence on the continent.
6:00 PM | SOUTH LONDON GALLERY
Ici C’est Paris – Short Film Programme
Ici C’est Paris explores Parisian landmarks through the eyes of Black diasporas, honing in on the interplay between race and space in the romanticised city. These films examine the darker side of the glimmering Parisian skyline, deconstructing the iconic sites of the Eiffel Tower, La Défense, the Palais de la Porte Dorée and the Palais de Tokyo, as well as their resonances in overseas French Caribbean territories and former colonies, through the cities of Cayenne and Abidjan.
Featuring experimental artists’ films, Collective Amnesia explores the emergence of early-2000s Ivorian club subcultures alongside the country’s civil war, while To Exist Under Permanent Suspicion is an unsettling and surreal take on the depravity of soulless luxury property development. Set in French Guiana, Ici C’est Paris is a tender romance, portraying yearning for intimacy and escape.
These tales of haunting, hierarchy, reappropriation and spatial politics, are all brought together in Pour votre confort et votre sécurité, narrated by African security guards who hold vigil over the frenzied art world housed within the Palais de Tokyo, reflecting on surveillance, heritage and the rituals of the spaces in which we consume art.
Programme:
- Collective Amnesia directed by Christelle Oyiri
- To Exist Under Permanent Suspicion directed by Valentin Noujaïm
- Pour votre confort et sécurité directed by Frédéric Mainçon
- Ici, c’est Paris directed by Léa Magnien and Quentin Chantrel
7:40 PM | CINÉ LUMIÈRE
Camp de Thiaroye directed by Ousmane Sembene
In Senegal, in 1944, the Thiaroye marshalling camp, on the outskirts of Dakar, welcomed African infantry soldiers, who valiantly fought in Europe against the Nazis and who now must be paid and repatriated to their countries. They soon realise that they will be paid much less than they were promised. The men rebel but this will not stop the massacre that awaits them.
8:00 PM | HACKNEY PICTUREHOUSE
Indivision directed by Leila Kelani
El Mansouria, near Tangier, is the wealthy homestead of the Bechtani family. Its location is shared with an abundant forest and villagers who have ‘squatted’ in the area for 40 years. A forthcoming wedding triggers a splitting of paths: while the matriarch of the Bechtani clan wants to clear out the land and sell it, her son Anis and granddaughter Lina live within nature in a fully mystical way, paying heed to coincidences and signs that announce a coming social revolution.
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8:30 PM | PECKHAMPLEX
The Weekend directed by Daniel Emeke Oriahi
Orphaned at a young age, Nikya has finally gotten the family she always wanted in her fiancé Luke. Now, there is only one thing that would make her life complete: to meet his parents and relatives. However Luke is reticent, having not been home in over a decade. Longing for connection, Nikya pushes him to reconcile with his past and soon they are off to Luke’s childhood home. While there Nikya learns that family baggage can be harder to stomach than she assumed.
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8:45 PM | RICH MIX
Disco Afrika directed by Luck Razanajaona
Twenty-year-old Kwame, who struggles to make a living in the clandestine sapphire mines, is taken back to his hometown after an unexpected turn of events. As he reunites with his mother and old friends, he finds himself confronted with the rampant corruption plaguing his country.
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Today at Film Africa – Thursday 31 October
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