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Tuesday, May 27, 2014

African Films

The 15 films from the 5 African Nations taking part in the 2014 Movie World Cup have been selected. Given the difficulty in finding African films, the year restrictions have been relaxed for Film #1 and #2 to be from the years 2000 - 2013 as opposed to 2005 - 2013. The following is the criteria for the three films.

Film 1: previously seen film from 2000 - 2013
Film 2: unseen film from 2000 - 2013
Film 3: film from 1960 - 2004

Algeria

Film 1: Rachida (2002, Yamina Bachir)
Film 2: Outside the Law (2010, Rachid Bouchareb)
Film 3: Daughters of Keltoum (2001, Mehdi Charef)

Cameroon: Two films by Jean-Pierre Bekolo are included. In fact, I was very close to picking all three films by him but A Trip to the Country has a relevant soccer segment making it a worthy selection.

Film 1: A Trip to the Country (2000, Jean-Marie Téno)
Film 2: Aristotle’s Plan (2006, Jean-Pierre Bekolo)
Film 3: Quartier Mozart (1992, Jean-Pierre Bekolo)

Ghana: Shirley Frimpong-Manso could have had all three films for Ghana but I have taken a gamble on Sinking Sands. Also, Ghana is the only nation to have two female directors represent all three films.

Film 1: The Perfect Picture (2010, Shirley Frimpong-Manso)
Film 2: Sinking Sands (2011, Leila Djansi)
Film 3: A Sting in a Tale (2009, Shirley Frimpong-Manso)

Ivory Coast

Film 1: Adanggaman (2000, Roger Gnoan M’Bala)
Film 2: Black Diamond (2010, Pascale Lamche)
Film 3: Burn it up Djassa (2012, Lonesome Solo)

Nigeria

Film 1: Without Shame (2005, Lancelot Oduwa Imasuen)
Film 2: Ezra (2007, Newton I. Aduaka)
Film 3: Last Flight to Abuja (2012, Obi Emelonye)

2 comments:

Norman Crane said...

Even with relaxed rules, this is still an accomplishment, which says something about either African film production or the international distribution of African films.

Sachin said...

For the longest time, I didn't think I would get all 15 films, which is why I kept delaying starting the spotlight. Absolutely delighted to have found them all.

But both your points are spot on. African film production is certainly resulting in more films and many more streaming websites are allowing one to rent African films. This second aspect has changed since the last World Cup. In fact, it has improved in the last 2 years because I had struggled to find films for the 2012 African Cup of Nations.