1956

• DARK WATERS (Siraa Fil-Mina)
• by Youssef Chahine, feature (fiction), Egypt, 1956, black and white, 138 min.
• Through a tumultuous love story, Les Eaux noires (Black Waters), one of the first films by the unmissable Egyptian filmmaker, evokes the difficulties of the working class and denounces social hypocrisy.

1992

• HYENAS (Hyènes)
• by Djibril Diop Mambety, feature (fiction), Senegal, 1992, color, 110 min.
• Colobane, a small town asleep in the dusty heat of the Sahel, the ghost of a charming town struck by poverty. Griots announce incredible news: Linguère Ramatou (Ami Diakhate), thirty years on and now an arch-billionaire, is back. No more poverty. The population waits for Linguère at the entrance to the town. Draman Drameh (Mansour Diouf), once Linguère’s passionate lover, rushes in first.
• 
  Official competition – Cannes Film Festival 1992
  
• presentation by Dyana Gaye (filmmaker and co-curator of Tigritudes, screening followed by a discussion – The state of East African cinema since independence

1990

• LUMUMBA :
  DEATH OF A PROPHET
• by Raoul Peck, feature (documentary), Haiti, 1990, black and white/color, 69 min.
• « If I die tomorrow, it’s because a white man has armed a black man », repeated future Congo Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba in 1960. A highly personal film by a Haitian filmmaker who grew up in Leopoldville.

November 6, 2023
at—6 p.m.

Alliance Française

Short films program 1966

• KAKA YO
  by Sébastien Kamba, (fiction), Congo,1966, black and white, 32 min. 
• Two young people fall in love and wish to marry, but a sorcerer advises the fiancé to test his bride’s feelings. A vibrant love story, Kaka Yo, which in Lingala means « only you », interweaves modern life, Brazzaville’s youth at the time, the European dances in vogue in the 1960s, and the initiatory life of the sorcerer and his spiritual and ritual power: « I take care of your destiny, » he says.

4K restoration by Hiventy. Film restored by the Cinémathèque Afrique of the Institut français as part of the 20 films for 2020 program.

• ON THE DUNE OF SOLITUDE
  (Sur la dune de la solitude)
• by Timité Bassori, (fiction), Ivory Coast, 1966, black and white, 28 min.
• The film is based on a legend in which Mamy Watta, the goddess of water, seduces humans. It’s about two young people who meet one evening on the banks of the lagoon. The two young people get to know each other and spend the night at the water’s edge. When they wake up the next morning, the girl has disappeared. Strangely enough, later on, the young man finds the face of his one-night stand on a deathbed.

4K restoration by Hiventy. Film restored by the Cinémathèque Afrique of the Institut français as part of the 20 films for 2020 programme.

• THE RETURN OF AN ADVENTURER (Le retour d’un aventurier)
• by Moustapha Alassane, fiction, Niger, 1966, color, 34 min.
• Jimmy returns to his village in Niger from a trip to the United States. As a gift to his friends, he brings back full cowboy outfits from the Far West. From now on, dressed in American mythology, their names are no longer Kali, Ibrahim or Boubakar, but Black Cooper, James Kelly, Casse-Tout or Reine Christine. And, just like what they imagine to be a real band of cowboys, they are going to sack the region, provoking the anger of the villagers.

2k restoration by Eclair Classics. Film restored by the Cinémathèque Afrique of the Institut français as part of the 20 films for 2020 programme.

1992

• QUARTIER MOZART
• by Jean-Pierre Bekolo, feature (fiction), Cameroon, 1992, color, 80 min.
• Re-imagining several folk tales into a contemporary setting, director Jean-Pierre Bekolo’s first feature film recounts the story of a young girl who is magically transformed into a swaggering Casanova nicknamed « My Guy ». While the focus is on « My Guy », several offbeat characters crowd the show, including a polygamist police chief whose daughter « My Guy » seduces and a witch whose handshake can make men’s genitals disappear. The combination of highly westernized characters and the charged folk tale atmosphere form a vision of today’s Africa. Quartier Mozart is as humorous as it is revealing and depicts the powerful influence of western pop culture.

1996

• FLAME
• by Ingrid Sinclair, feature (fiction), Zimbabwe, 1996, color, 90 min.
• In 1975, the « chimurenga » (war of liberation) is raging in Rhodesia. One night, a group of fighters come to recruit volunteers in the small village where Florence and Nyasha, both 15, live. Florence dreams of getting married. She falls in love with Comrade Danger, the group’s charismatic leader, and seems ready to follow him. Nyasha, for her part, is not insensitive to his ideological rhetoric. Florence’s father, Frederik, forbids his daughter to leave the village. But in revenge, the manager of the local bazaar denounces him to the Rhodesian authorities, and is arrested by the police. This allows Florence to persuade Nyasha to join the Freedom Fighters. Both leave their families and set off on a long and perilous journey across war-torn Rhodesia.

Director’s Fortnight Cannes 1996

1996/1998

• DEMOCRACY and cie 1 & 2
• by Mariama Hima, short (fiction), Niger, color, 1996, 2 min.
• Two one-minute films commissioned by GREC to mark the centenary of cinema.

• SILMANDÉ (Tourbillons)
• by Pierre Yaméogo, feature (fiction), Burkina Faso, 1998, color, 85 min.
• Following the imprisonment of his brother, a wealthy Lebanese merchant who has lived in Burkina Faso for two generations serves as an eye-opener on the rampant corruption of his country’s government.

1996/1997

• LE CLANDESTIN
• by Zeka Laplaine, short (fiction), DR Congo, 1998, black and white, 15 min.
• The film is a letter written by a young illegal immigrant from Africa to his cousin in Lisbon (Portugal): hidden in a container, he has landed in the port of Lisbon. His traveling companion, an Angolan, is dead. As soon as he disembarks, our hero runs into a policeman, also black, who insists on following him on a silent chase through Lisbon, punctuated by increasingly disappointing encounters and humorous cardboard boxes.
  During this first day in paradise, he’s about to experience hell! From one misadventure to another, he decides to return to his homeland.
  
  
• FOOLS
• by Ramadan Suleman, feature (fiction), South Africa, 1998, color, 90 min.
• Charterston Township 1990. Professor Zamani is respected in the township. To be sure, he once raped one of his students but the community turned a blind eye. Zamani used to rail against the apartheid system but those days are long gone. Now he teaches South African history in the Afrikaner language and grudgingly organizes the picnic for National Day, which commemorates the Boers’ massacre of the Zulu nation…  When Zani, the raped girl’s brother, returns from Swaziland where he had the chance to study, he is determined to change everything….