Portal:African cinema/Page to screen

Selected screen list

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The Blue Elephant (2014) is an Egyptian thriller-horror-fantasy mash-up based on the 2012 eponymous novel by Egyptian writer Ahmed Mourad. The book was the best-selling novel at the Cairo International Book Fair in 2013 and shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2014. The director Marwan Hamed was inspired to adapt the book noting “We do not do thrillers and fantasy films in Egypt and I love these genres”.

In adapting his books to film, Mourad said: “The reading audience, which represents two percent of the Egyptian society, is not the same as the cinema audience, which represents 35-40 percent of the Egyptian people. I need to be aware of the required criteria [for adaptation], and I need to view the text as something that is not sacred, susceptible to criticism — change and tweaking to fit the cinema”.

The movie features Karim Abdel Aziz, Khaled El Sawy, and Nelly Karim, among Egypt’s biggest film stars, and follows a troubled psychiatrist who returns to his post at a psychiatric hospital after 5 years following the death of his wife and daughter. Discovering that a patient and old friend is accused of murdering his wife, Yehia becomes enmeshed in a tangled web of mystery as he tries to save his friend and in the process, himself. The film was a box-office success in Egypt and the Arab region and its 2019 sequel Blue Elephant 2 went on to become the highest-grossing film in Egypt. In 2023 Mourad confirmed that a third installment of the franchise was in development.

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The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is a 2019 drama film based on the memoir of the same name by Malawian author and inventor William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer. The film starred and was directed by British Nigerian actor Chiwetel Ejiofor. It tells the story of William, who as a young Malawian schoolboy builds a windmill to save his village from drought and famine. The film received praise for Ejiofor’s direction and the performances.

It premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival and began streaming on Netflix in March 2019. It was submitted as the British entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards but was not nominated.

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John Boyega

Half of a Yellow Sun is a 2013 Nigerian historical drama film. The film was directed by Biyi Bandele and is based onthe best-selling novel of the same name by writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Taking place during the Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970), a conflict caused by religious and political differences between the Igbo ethnic group and Muslim Hausa-Fulanis, the film follows the lives of twin sisters Olanna and Kainene from a wealthy Nigerian family as they navigate love, loss and political turmoil.

The film features Thandiwe Newton and Chiwetel Ejiofor and an ensemble cast that includes Onyeka Onwenu, Genevieve Nnaji, Hakeem Kae-Kazim, O.C. Ukeje, Zack Orji, and John Boyega in one of his first film roles. The film, which had a budget of $10 million, the largest for a Nollywood film at that point,  was shot across five weeks in Tinapa Studio, Calabar and Creek Town, Nigeria. Bandele listed malaria and typhoid as two of the major challenges of the shoot, with several members of the cast and crew becoming ill, including star Thandiwe Newton. The film received mixed reviews from critics but was nonetheless a box office success, becoming the highest-grossing Nigerian film before it was overtaken by The Wedding Party in 2016.

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A cartoon of Queen Sarraounia in the official poster of FESPACO 2023

Sarraounia (1986), a historical drama film directed by Mauritanian director, Med Hondo and co-produced by Burkina Faso, Mauritania and France. The film tells the story of the of the Queen of the Aznas’s resistance of the Hausas of West Africa in the face of French colonialism. The film was adapted from the1980 novel of the same name by the Nigerien novelist and poet Abdoulaye Mamani. Shot in Burkina Faso.the film cost $3,000,000, which was raised over seven years by Burkinabé financiers and Hondo's own production company. After being shown in several African countries, the film achieved widespread success and won the First Prize (Étalon de Yennenga) at the 1987 Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO).

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Khanyi Mbau

Happiness is a Four-Letter Word is a 2016 South African romantic drama film directed by Thabang Moyela and written by Busisiwe Ntintili based on a novel of the same name by Nozizwe Cynthia Jele. The novel won the 2011 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book, Africa Region and the M-Net film prize at the 2011 M-Net Literary Awards. It revolves around three women: Zaza (Khanyi Mbau), a glamourous trophy wife; Nandi (Mmabatho Montsho), a successful lawyer; and Princess (Renate Stuurman), an art gallery owner – as they navigate the complexities of happiness and societal expectations. The film was a box office success, and a sequel titled Happiness Ever After was released on Netflix in 2021.

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Tug of War (Vuta N'Kuvute)film poster

Tug of War (2021) is Tanzanian film directed by Amil Shivji based on the award-winning Swahili novel Vuta N’kuvute by Adam Shafi. A coming-of-age political drama about love and resistance set in the final years of British colonial Zanzibar, the film was awarded the Tanit d'Or, the top prize at Tunisia's Carthage Film Festival and was Tanzania's entry for the Academy Award Best International Feature category. In Shivji’s own words:

I read it as a high schooler, as it was a part of the teaching material in our Swahili class. It is one of those novels that you just can’t put down once you begin reading it. The writing is extremely descriptive and cinematic. All I could picture were moving images, sounds and tastes of Zanzibar island. That’s when I decided to adapt it for the big screen

After analysing chapter by chapter, I chose characteristics first before I chose characters. The novel is quite long with a lot of faces and places. I combined different traits into one or two characters to allow a smaller ensemble cast to flourish. For the revolutionaries cast, I spent time talking to politically active comrades from the time who shared stories of themselves, or their loved ones who were up against the British in the ‘50s. This really fed into backstories for Denge and the boys. Mwajuma, the taarab singer was modeled around the famous Siti Bint Saad who is still considered the mother of Taarab in East Africa."

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Deon Meyer

Trackers (2019), is a South-African co-produced crime thriller television series. It's an adaptation of South African writer Deon Meyer's best-selling 2011 novel, his seventh and the second to be adapted to the small screen.  It is the first co-production between South African pay-TV channel M-Net, German public broadcaster ZDF, and the US's Cinemax. The six-part series finds its three main characters embroiled in a violent conspiracy involving organized crime, smuggled diamonds and rhinos, the CIA, and an international terrorist plot. It was MNet's most-watched show of 2019.

Deon Meyer worked closely with the show's writing team in the adaption.

"As an author, I think you are always too close to the book and too subjective to take the adaptation decisions on your own. We spent perhaps more time discussing and brainstorming the script than on any other aspect of the TV show and I was very involved with that. I think we all had a similar vision. Let’s use the book as an inspiration but not as the gospel."

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Eriq Ebouaney in 2013

Le silence de la forêt (lit. 'The Silence of the Forest/The Forest') is a 2003 Central African Republican film directed by Bassek Ba Kobhio and Didier Ouenangare. It was the first-ever feature film of the Central African Republic and co-produced with Cameroon and Gabon, the two countries where filming took place. The film is adapted from the novel by Étienne Goyémidé of the same title and largely takes place among the ethnic minority group of the Biaka people, a nomadic pygmy group. It is considered the first film to address the racism of modern-day Africans towards this group.

The story follows Gonaba (Eriq Ebouaney) a disillusioned civil servant in Bangui who, seeking meaning in his life, leaves everything behind to live among the Biaka. His misguided attempt to apply his Western-formed idealism is met with resistance from deeply entrenched traditions. The film also stars Nadège Beausson Diagne with a film score by the famed Congolese musician Manu Dibango.

Read more

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Monica Arac de Nyeko

Wanuri Kahiu in 2018

Rafiki is a 2018 Kenyan drama film directed by Wanuri Kahiu. The film is inspired by Ugandan Monica Arac de Nyeko's 2007 Caine Prize-winning short story Jambula Tree and tells the story of romance between two young women, Kena and Ziki, amidst family and political pressures around LGBT rights in Kenya. The film's title "Rafiki" (meaning "friend" in Swahili) was chosen, because due to homophobia, people in same-sex relationships often are compelled to introduce their partner as a "friend".

The film had its international premiere in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival; it was the first Kenyan film to be screened at the festival. In explaining her choice of story, Kahiu said:

"My first and foremost concern was to find a love story. This is what I wanted to do. When I came across Jambula Tree—because of the texture and nuances, the profound love that the main characters had for each other—I wanted to tell this story. Even though it’s a hard subject because it’s taboo—two girls falling in love with each other in a country where this is outlawed—it was very important for me to tell a love story because that’s what it is: how true love can triumph above everything."

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Embeth Davidtz

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight is a 2024 South African drama film directed by South-African-American actress Embeth Davidtz in her feature directorial debut. The film is based on British-Zimbabwean Alexandra Fuller's best-selling 2001 memoir of her experience as a young girl  in a white tenant farming family in the last days of Rhodesia’s minority White-led government in the lead up to the pivotal 1980 elections. The mostly South African cast includes Lexi Venter as the 8-year-old Fuller, Davidtz as her alcoholic mother, in addition to Zikhona Bali, ​​Rob Van Vuuren, and Fumani Shilubana.

The film premiered at the Telluride Film Festival on August 30, 2024, and is set to screen as part of the Gala Presentation at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 6, 2024. The Hollywood Reporter’s review called it an “extraordinary” and “beautifully realized” adaptation.

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Sol de Carvalho

Mabata Bata is a 2017 Mozambican film directed by Sol de Carvalho. The film is a magic-realist adaption from a short story by Mia Couto, one of Mozambique's most prominent writers and 2013 winner of the Camões Prize, the most important literary award in the Portuguese language.

Mabata Bata tells the story of Azarias, a young orphaned shepherd who dreams of going to school but has to tend to his uncle’s herd. When Mabata Bata, the herd’s biggest ox steps on a landmine from the civil war, a frightened Azarias flees to the forest, and a series of magical events is triggered.

While Cuto’s short story is written in Portuguese de Carvalho scripted the film mostly in Shangaan, a Bantu language spoken in Southern Mozambique. “He [Cuto] was the first one to tell me to go ahead with Shangaan…to make the characters flow better and create more identification with the audience and with the object of the film’s content”.

Mia Couto

The film won multiple awards, including Best Feature Film at the New York City Independent Film Festival; Best Film Award at the Cabo Verde International Film Festival; and Best Photography of a Fiction Feature Film and Best Editing at FESPACO.

The film can be streamed on Vimeo.

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poster for Love Unto Grave TV series

Love Unto Grave (Amharic: ፍቅር እስከ መቃብር; Fikir Eske Mekabir) (2024) is an Ethiopian television drama series directed and co-written by Sewmehon Yismaw based on the 1968 novel of the same name by Haddis Alemayehu.

Haddis Alemayehu in 1961

Love Unto Grave is one of the best known novels in Ethiopia and is considered a classic of Ethiopian literature. The novel gained popularity largely due to its narration on Ethiopian radio during the Derg regime. The story revolves around the doomed love affair between Bezabeh, a nobleman, and Seble, a young woman of a lower social class. The novel also takes aim at the injunctions of the Church, class prejudices and the hardships and inequities faced by the peasantry.

The first of four commissioned seasons, each consisting of 12 episodes, began airing on September 11, 2024, to coincide with the Ethiopian New Year celebrations.

In preparation of filming the director said:

"We are trying to understand the book before executing it; there are more than 70 studies done on Fikir Eske Mekabir, and we are trying to read and understand each perspective. We want to know how people perceive it, and in the end, we want to go out with our own voice. It needs dedication and confidence."

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Wole Soyinka

Kongi's Harvest is a 1970s Nigerian drama film directed by Ossie Davis. The film was adapted from a screenplay by Wole Soyinka's 1965 play of the same name. Produced by Francis Oladele's Calpenny Nigeria Films, it was the first production by a Nigerian indigenous company. The film revolves around the degeneration of personal rule in post-colonial Africa and satirizes the resulting tyranny reflected between a populist politician and a traditional ruler. The film was said to reflect the rising trend of authoritarian one-man regimes in Africa. Soyinka, a Nigerian playwright, poet, and the first African to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986, also starred in the leading role as the dictator of an African nation. At the time of the film's release, Soyinka dissociated himself from the film and denounced the changes that had been made to his screenplay.

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