African Apocalypse is a 2020 documentary film directed and produced by Rob Lemkin. It features Femi Nylander and was produced by Geoff Arbourne and David Upshal. The film portrays a journey from Oxford, England, to Niger on the trail of a colonial killer called Captain Paul Voulet. Voulet’s descent into barbarity mirrors that of Kurtz in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Nylander discovers that Voulet’s massacres happened at exactly the same time when Conrad wrote his book in 1899. In Niger, Nylander meets Nigerien communities along the route of Voulet’s trail who have lived with the legacy of his destruction.
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| Edited by | David Charap |
| Music by | Tunde Jegede; Sunara Begum |
Production companies | Inside Out Films and LemKino Pictures |
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Running time | 88 minutes |
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The film was broadcast by the BBC in May 2021 as an episode of the Arena documentary series.[1]
Among other critical attention it received,[2] African Apocalypse was described by Phil Hoad in The Guardian as a "fascinating historical documentary-cum-personal journey. ...[Nylander] is doing invaluable work here, disinterring another collectively obscured tragedy and presenting it back to Europe as part of a long-overdue revision of colonialism."[3]
Film festivals
editAfrican Apocalypse premiered at the 64th BFI London Film Festival on 16 October 16, 2020. The film competed in the Debate strand.[4]
References
edit- ^ "Arena: African Apocalypse". BBC. 2021. Retrieved 10 August 2021.
- ^ "News and reviews". African Apocalypse. Retrieved 8 November 2024.
- ^ Hoad, Phil (30 October 2020). "Review | African Apocalypse review – startling journey into Niger's heart of darkness". The Guardian.
- ^ Nwokorie, Lynn (16 October 2020). "African Apocalypse". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 8 October 2020. Retrieved 16 October 2020.
External links
edit- Official website
- African Apocalypse at IMDb
- "African Apocalypse (2020)" at Global Health Film, 21 October 2021.
- African Apolcalypse at Rotten Tomatoes