The Africa Project: A Movie Poll
wow kevin. thanks.
It’ll be some time before I can even think of contributing a (meaningful) list of my favorite African films, but I’ll be watching this with great interest. It’s hard to decide where to start though, with all these great lists; nevertheless, thanks for the poll and also the links!
1. Bab A’ziz – The Prince That Contemplated His Soul (Nacer Khemir)
2. The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo)
3. Moolaade (Ousmane Sembene)
4. Yeelen (Souleymane Cissé)
5. Munyurangabo (Lee Isaac Chung)
6. Hyenas (Djibril Diop Mambéty)
7. Waiting For Happiness (Abderrahmane Sissako)
8. Yaaba (Idrissa Ouedraogo)
9. Ali Zaoua, Prince of The Streets (Nabil Ayouch)
10. Abouna (Mahamat-Saleh Haroun)
This thread = <3
I’ll give you three lists with films I love (one for Egypt/Maghreb, one for sub-Saharan Africa, and one with a mix of titles not yet on MUBI), and you can use any of the three lists as you wish:
(one film per director)
Egypt/Maghreb
Shabab emraa (Abouseif, 1956)
Bab el hadid (Chahine, 1958)
Doa al karawan (Barakat, 1960)
Soleil O (Hondo, 1967)
Shey min el khouf (Kamal, 1969)
Al-mummia (Abdel Salam, 1973)
Omar Gatlato (Allouache, 1977)
El Towk Wa El Eswera (Beshara, 1986)
El-haimoune (Khemir, 1986)
Bab el shams (Nasrallah, 2004)
(I’m sorry i couldn’t include anything from Bouzid, Behi, Amari, Tlatli, Sissako, Abdel Sayed, Saleh, Ayouch, Boughedir, Ferhati, Ben-Barka, Bahloul, Sokhona, Moknèche, Hadjadj, Ameur-Zaïmeche, Albou, Meddour, Abderrahman Tazi, Chouikh, Zemmouri, Guerdjou, Belouad, Benlyazid, Bensaïdi,…
Sub-Saharan Africa
La noire de… (Sembene, 1966)
Touki Bouki (Mambéty, 1973)
Muna Moto (Dikongue-Pipa, 1975)
Mirt Sost Shi Amitn (Gerima, 1976)
Kaddu Beykat (Faye, 1976)
Jom (Samb-Makharam, 1982)
Mueda, Memoria e Massacre (Guerra, 1982)
Yeelen (Cissé, 1987)
Yaaba (Ouedraogo, 1989)
La nuit de la vérité (Régina Nacro, 2004)
(I’m sorry I couldn’t find place for Haroun, Kaboré, Ascofare, Sissoko, Sene Absa, Sora Wade, Rajaonarivelo, Touré, Kouyaté, Dornford-May, Roodt, Gnoan M’Bala, Keïta, de Latour, Yameogo, Sanou Kollo, Gomes, Téno, Kramo-Lanciné, Doukouré, Camara, Drabo, Dao, Gomis, Diogaye Beye, Camara, Gamboa, Mahlatsi, (and Jean Rouch!!!) …
Not yet on MUBI:
Le retour d’un aventurier (Alassane, 1966)
Le wazzou polygame (Ganda, 1971)
Nahla (Beloufa,1979)
Bako, l’autre rive (Champreux, 1979)
Tabûnat al-sayyid Fabre (Rachedi, 1983)
Dhil al ardh (Louhichi, 1983)
Histoire d’une rencontre (Tsaki, 1985)
Felix in Exile (Kentridge, 1994)
Essaïda (Zran, 1997)
Jump the Gun (Blair, 1997)
Slowly, carefully, aware of the vast gaps in my viewing, trying not to over-reference Sembene
Iskanderija – lih? (Chahine)
Xala (Sembene)
Hyènes (Mambéty)
Adieu Bonaparte (Chahine)
Marcides (Nasrallah)
Moolaadé (Sembene)
L’Extraordinaire Destin de Madame Brouette (Sene Absa)
Asfour Stah (Boughedir)
Daratt (Haroun)
Oxalà crescam pitangas (Libertade, Ondjake: not on IMDb)
It’s not much but…
Harvest: 3000 Years (Haile Gerima)
Black Girl (Ousmane Sembène)
Ceddo (Ousmane Sembène)
Xala (Ousmane Sembène)
Moolaadé (Ousmane Sembène)
Faat Kiné (Ousmane Sembène)
The Little Girl Who Sold the Sun (Djibril Diop Mambéty)
Hyenas (Djibril Diop Mambéty)
_City of Contrasts (Djibril Diop Mambéty)
Yeelen (Souleymane Cissé)
The Wind (Souleymane Cissé)
A Screaming Man (Mahamat-Saleh Haroun)
Man of Ashes (Nouri Bouzid)
Mapantsula (Oliver Schmitz)
Destiny (Youssef Chahine)
This is already about 3/4 of what I’ve seen in African cinema but the films in the list are what I considered great films. And I only included films made by native directors or produced by the African countries themselves and excluded any films made by outsiders, even African-Americans. I’m using the other people’s lists in this project as references for films I do have to watch in the future. Among those are Soleil O, The Night of Counting the Years, Dry Season, Abouna, Munyurangabo, Africa I Will Fleece You, and Kuxa Kanema.
Can I add a couple (I thought we were only supposed to list 10, and also I forgot these: three new in all, in bold)
Iskanderija – lih? (Chahine)
Testament (Akomfrah)
Xala (Sembene)
Hyènes (Mambéty)
Adieu Bonaparte (Chahine)
Marcides (Nasrallah)
Moolaadé (Sembene)
Sarraounia (Hondo)
L’Extraordinaire Destin de Madame Brouette (Sene Absa)
Asfour Stah (Boughedir)
Daratt (Haroun)
Samt al qusur/ Les silences du palais (Tlatli)
Oxalà crescam pitangas (Libertade, Ondjake: not on IMDb)
@ Ali – It was only going to be ten films but then some amazing lists were coming from all angles!! BTW where did you get to see Testament – John Akomfrah I have been looking out for that one.
BUT I think for the final poll which I will publish will only feature 10 films per user! These will be the first ten you have published in your list!! If you need to make changes either message me or amend here on the thread.
The exception to this will be those with two lists!! One concentrating on a specfic region / country like Martin’s and a general African list. So if anybody wants to create a more specific list for any country please go ahead.
It is great to see so many new films being mentioned. There really is lots to discover!
For discovery sake though I think the more films mentioned here the better.
I hope you mean the first ten on the second list, I’d like to keep ‘Testament’ there, it was really a surprise. I saw it at the Manchester arts cinema, several years ago now. They had a little bit of info along with it, but not much: it wasn’t then on IMDb (and if it is now, it’s thanks to me :P), I couldn’t find anyone who’d seen it or heard of it, I desperately wanted to know a few things and there was no one I could ask short of emailing the director in person which I didn’t have the nerve to do. I suppose its presence here is a little tenuous since John Akomfrah is black British, but it’s so much about being African/not being African, filming in Africa/remembering Africa/reconstructing Africa/being in Africa when you’re African-and-not-African/ filming this place and its history and testing idioms and finding a little confidence … I think it’s speaking as an African film.
Testament is definitely a Ghanian film. Akomfrah is A British citizen, but was born in Ghana and Testament was co-financed in Ghana. The Film Africa festival is showing Akomfrah’s Handsworth Songs in November which I want to try and watch. This is a British film, but the synopsis sounds amazing.
Talking of contacting directors, I am going to contact a hundred or so contemporary African filmmakers and ask them to participate in the poll. Although I’m sure many will be too busy / not interested in taking part, I do hope I will get some response as it will be great to feature some lists from professionals on the poll and it would be good publicity from them as I will include some info and links about them and their films.
Great thread, Kuxa. I’ve been looking for more African films to show on the Tanzanian art school I’m currently teaching film. (about the only art school in east Africa) With the slow internet connection it’s difficult to access films here but the streaming links definitely help.
I’ll see if I can contribute to the poll later, (although I haven’t seen enough African films in my opinion) but for now, thanks for the streaming and great lists, the rest of the people in this thread as well.
Ok this is a list that Hani an independant filmmaker and Mubi member sent me. An all Egyptian list with some very interesting films on there. Specifically those of Radwan El Kashef. Date Wine is a film I have been wanting to see for a v. long time.
01- The Asphalt Kings by Oussama Fawzi
02- Date Wine by Radwan El-Kashef
03- The Collar and the Bracelet by Khairy Beshara
04- The Street Player by Mohamed Khan
05- Dreams of Hind and Camilia by Mohamed Khan
06- Lieah ya banafsieg by Radwan El-Kashef
07- The Magician by Radwan El-Kashef
08- Alexndria Why? by Youssef Chahine
09- Cairo Station by Youssef Chahine
10- Closed Doors by Atef Hetata
11- The Lawyer by Raafat El-Mihi
12- Be Silent and Listen by Sherif Arafa
13- War in the Land of Egypt by Salah Abouseif
Thanks for inviting me into this Kuxa. Even though I managed Sembene in the DC, I am not too familiar with other African film. Luckly there are plenty of lists here so I will be content to be a student instead of teacher here.
Ok a quick recap so far there are 25 polls….. I hope to get to at least thirty.
I just watched the free Moroccan movie on MUBI Sally mentioned The End. It is a pretty good film and I would definitely reccomend it to those who think “obscure” countries like Morocco can’t make fun entertaining films. The bravura camerawork (think Besson’s Angel -A) verges on MTV style chic and the Kill Bill theme with dashes of Rodriguez and Jarmusch deadpan humour will probably alienate some. I still enjoyed it though and wished I was 16 again so I could hail it a masterpiece. The director obviously has a visual eye and his allusions to the death of the former monarch Hassan II make interesting reading. One of the characters at the end screams “what will they do, now the king is dead”. Considering how Libya, Egypt and Tunisia have all overthrown there leaders this year it is a question many Moroccans will ask themselves. These kind of crossover films are important though for the success of any emerging cinematic nation, and Morocco is really proving it has an abundance of talent with directors such as Nour Eddine Lakhmari, Laila Kilani, Faouzi Bensaidi making such diverse cinema.
I have also uploaded another two excellent films…
check my blog for details..
KUXA KANEMA: BIRTH OF CINEMA
The first cultural act of the nascent Mozambique Government after independence in 1975 was to create the National Institute of Cinema (INC). The new president Samora Machel had a strong awareness of the power of the image, and understood he needed to use this power to build a socialist nation. INC’s goal was to film the people, and to deliver these images back to the people.—Icarus films
“People say “if you just SEE this little film from Mozambique, it’ll make you realize how crappy Taxi Driver is!” Then you see the movie and instead realize that Taxi Driver is actually better than yo thought. lol”
Well maybe after seeing this documentary users opinions might change about countries like lil’ old Mozambique. This country has a rich cinematic history and a really exciting period politically and culturally in the 1970’s… So much so Jean Luc Godard, Jean Rouch and Ruy Guerra all descended on this nation to help Samora build his socialist dream and use cinema as the key tool. It is very easy to poo poo small nations where you have no idea where they located on the globe and accuse others of snobbery and eltism, but please before you do, take some time and do some research…….. The irony is Martin Scorsese himself with his World Cinema Foundation has done so much to preserve the smaller films from “lesser nations”. Why? Is he a snob? Or does he like to reel off names of films no one else can pronounce? Or maybe he realises that as an American auteur already assured of immortality in the history of cinema, he has a duty to highlight those people who will not suffer the same fate.
Toby (Ivan Jackson), a young English businessman, arrives in South Africa to take charge of a publishing firm. He knows little about apartheid and so at first sees no contradiction in developing a relationship with an elite, upper-class white woman and with a woman dedicated to fighting apartheid. But as Toby makes friends with one of the black South Africans (Zakes Mokae), and as he registers both the subtle and more obvious, deep-seated racial prejudices of the minority white population, some of the truth of the oppression here begins to dawn. That is brought to a head when tragedy strikes. (allmovie.com)
This movie reminds me of Cassavettes, with the improv script and the delicious jazz soundtrack. The b/w camera work is wonderful and the outright condemantion of aparthied and the effects it has on both groups of people was way before it’s time.
i love this thread, I need to watch a lot more before I submit a list though. ^ Kuxa Kanema is an excellent film!
Hi.. I don’t know that much about African cinema but I’m Egyptian so I have more than 10 favorite Egyptian films that I can share with you.
Hi.. I don’t know that much about African cinema but I’m Egyptian so I have more than 10 favorite Egyptian films that I can share with you.1- THE 6TH DAY – Youssef Chahine
2- IN THE HELIOPOLIS FLAT – Mohamad Khan
3- MISSING PERSON (KHARAG WA LAM YA’UD) – Mohamed Khan
4- CAIRO STATION – Youssef Chahine
5- KITKAT – Daoud Abdel Sayed
6- THE BEST OF TIMES (AHLA AL AWKAT) – Hala Khalil
7- I LOVE CINEMA – (BAHEB EL CIMA) – Ossama Fawzy
8- THE INNOCENT (AL-BARI) – Atef El Tayeb
9- FALLEN ANGEL’S PARADISE (GANNAT AL SHAYATEEN) – Osama Fawzy
10- ALEXANDRIA WHY – Youssef Chahine
11- A MAN IN OUR HOUSE (FI BAITINA RAJUL) – Henry Barakat
Here’s mine:
Night of Counting the Years (Chadi Abdel Salem)
Touki Bouki (Djibril Diop Mambéty)
These Hands (Flora M’Mbugu-Schelling)
Picc Mi (Mansour Sora Wade)
Man of Ashes (Nouri Bouzid)
Waiting For Happiness (Abderrahmane Sissako)
Divine Carcasse (Dominique Loreau)
Dry Season (Mahamat-Saleh Haroun)
Kuxa Kanema (Margarida Cardoso)
Harvest: 3000 Years (Haile Gerima)
Mine:
Petit a Petit (Jean Rouch)
Black Girl (Ousmane Sembene)
Touki Bouki (Djibril Diop Mambety)
Bamako (Abderrahmane Sissako)
Yeelen (Souleymane Cisse)
Man of Ashes (Nouri Bouzid)
Destiny / Al-Massir (Youssef Chahine)
Africa, I Will Fleece You (Jean-Marie Teno)
The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo)
Doa Al-Karawan / The Nightingale’s Cry (Henry Barakat)
Hi ! I haven’t seen many african films yet , But I’m a big fan of XALA and I really love these films :
Xala ( Ousmane Sémbene )
Bab el hadid ( Youssef Chahine )
Baara ( Souleymane Cissé )
Heremanoko ( Abderrahmane Sissako )
Finye ( Souleymane Cissé )
Ceddo ( Ousmane Sémbene )
Bamako ( Abderrahmane Sissako )
Yeelen ( Souleymane Cissé )
Touki-Bouki ( Djibril Diop Mambéty )
Yaaba ( Idrissa Ouedraogo )
^ Commie Bee… Nice list!! You definitely have included some of the “greats” of African cinema.
A user Ahmed Nabil also sent me this list of his favourites, but asked for it not be included in the final poll as he felt it was not representitve of all African film. Still there are some great Egyptian choices here…..
I have decided to brave it and watch Cairo 1930 without subs. I have loved both Salah Abouseif films I have seen and if I am to continue to watch his films I must now do this without the help of subs… Still from what I have seen so far (No Tomorrow, and The Sun Will Never Set), Abouseif is a visual filmmaker with flare and imagination.
Two more films are available from my BLOG
CHRONICLE OF THE YEARS OF FIRE
Winner of the prestigious Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1975, Chronicle of the Years of Fire portrays Algeria’s struggle for independence from French colonial rule. The story follows a peasant’s migration from his drought-stricken village to his eventual participation with the Algerian resistance movement, just prior to the outbreak of the Algerian War of Independence. —IMDb
This film has been completely forgotten about and must be the most obscure Palme d’or winner. As yet I am not aware of any dvd release at least not here in the UK. The quality is bad but it is the best you can find and it is certianly watchable even if you are left wondering what this might look like on the big screen….
FAREWELL JOHNNY
The Citizen Kane of South African cinema. In a private asylum for the insane, seven patients play a dangerous game of life and death with a catatonic new arrival. With echoes of The Magus, the works of Alain Robbe-Grillet and Pasolini’s Theorem, Jannie brings the panacea of love to one patient and death’s finality to another. —BFI
I know there has been some interest in this film so I bumped it up my queue. The still does not do this film justice. Farwell Johnny is filmed in garish bright colours remisniscent of Fassbinder. There is no similarity with Citizen Kane other than this was a monumental break through in S. African filmmaking. Before this we had dramas and comedies but this was the country’s first “art” film and one of the first voices to question aparthied South Africa through use of metaphor in a mental asylum. For me this film is a true masterpiece. (and I don’t use that word lightly).
Film Africa 2011 in London have published a profile about Sarah Maldoror which I thought I would share. I would start a separate thread but since her work is seldom seen it seems better to include it here…..
Sarah Maldoror’s film Sambizanga (1972) is a courageous and powerful piece of filmmaking. Beautifully shot in 35mm film, the director masterfully tells the story of a young couple – Maria and Domingos – who enjoy a seemingly blissful family life with their young baby, until Domingos is seized by the Portuguese authorities for being a suspected political activist, and taken to a brutal prison in the city. The film follows Maria on her heroic journey to find and save her husband; the narrative is punctuated by her heartbreaking cries; ‘Domingos!’, and her encounters with officials who turn her away, while Maldoror cuts to scenes of her husbands torture, creating a sense of frantic urgency to the film.
Sambizanga captures a moment in Angolan history where a tide turned. By deliberately setting the film in the past – 11 years previously – Maldoror is able to show the deaths and acts of brutality that served to both unify and advance the liberation movement. She shows, as she says in her own words ‘the political consciousness of the people had not yet matured’. Domingos’ torture and Maria’s struggle to learn the truth are symbolic of a generation of people becoming politically aware. At a time when a single death was still an inconceivable act of violent oppression, Maldoror’s narrative captures a society on the knifepoint of change. Later in this period, death and injury were common in the fight for freedom; it is estimated that by the end of 1961, the first year of the war, 50 000 Africans died as a result of rioting, massacres, mass executions and torture, while approximately 450 000 fled to neighboring Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo).
Maldoror is honest about the didacticism of her film; ‘to make a film means to take a position, and when I take a position, I am educating people. The audience has a need to know that there’s a war going on in Angola… I make films so that people – no matter what race or color they are – can understand them’. Her approach to her art has consistently been one tied up in the world of politics, and in the desire for political change. Her personal life is an astounding story in itself. Maldoror is of Guadeloupian origin, but moved to Paris early in her childhood. She was invited in her youth to study film at the Moscow Film Academy in the early 1960s, under the eye of the great Russian director Mark Donskoi. Here, following in the footsteps of the ‘godfather’ of African Cinema, Ousmane Sémbene, she learned about politically committed cinema, developing a revolutionary aesthetic of her own. She worked as an assistant on Gillo Pontecorvo’s celebrated film The Battle of Algiers (1966), and soon after made her first short film Monamgambée (1969), which acts as both a narrative and technical practice for her later feature Sambizanga.
Maldoror was by no means an outsider to the liberation movement in Angola. She was closely involved with the MPLA – the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola – as her husband, Mario de Andrade was its former president, who had a close role in the writing of Sambizanga’s script. In her life, as in her films, Maldoror is concerned with community, action and politics. Her scripting of a powerful, stubborn and loving woman as the central character of her feature film both embodies and provokes the complex notions of community during struggle, and what political struggle really is. Domingos is the ‘activist’, brutally treated for the possession of a mere flyer, his struggle is physical, degrading, the scenes of his torture are difficult to watch for Maldoror has so adeptly shown us his compassionate and loving character in an earlier family scene at his home. Maria’s struggle is protracted, anguished, in the dark. A community of women come to her aid to remind her of her responsibilities to her child. Maldoror achingly reminds us of the ongoing struggle to continue living in such politically volatile times.
The narrative trajectories that Maldoror shows us skilfully unravel a political situation made up of individuals. In the final scene of the film, we see the activists dancing, socialising; upon the news of Domingos’ death, they stand in a circle and celebrate- it is both a moment of mourning and of joy, for as Mussunda – one of the leaders – says, Domingos has begun his real life, at the heart of the Angolan people. This line captures the true spirit of Sambizanga; its will to show the development of a strong political consciousness and a will for change in Angola.
Sarah Maldoror will be participating in a Q & A after the screening of Sambizanga at the Ritzy Cinema in Brixton on Saturday 12th of November at 03.00PM.
I would really reccomend anyone in London or nearby to support this festival as there is so much on offer.
Whoops I forgot to print Ahmed’s list……..
A DInner Date;
http://mubi.com/films/a-dinner-date
Alexandria Why;
http://mubi.com/films/alexandria-why
Clay Dolls;
http://mubi.com/films/clay-dolls
Scheherazade Tell me a Story;
http://mubi.com/films/scheherazade-tell-me-a-story
Cairo 1930;
http://mubi.com/films/cairo-1930
The Beginning and the End;
http://mubi.com/films/the-beginning-and-the-end—2
The Street Player;
http://mubi.com/films/the-street-player
Ice Cream in Gleem;
http://mubi.com/films/ice-cream-fi-glim
The Closed Doors;
http://mubi.com/films/the-closed-doors
One-Zero;
http://mubi.com/films/one-zero
@Kuxa I really haven’t seen that much African cinema. I have seen, however, some at festivals like Tribeca. They were shorts that were either documentary or fiction, but I don’t remember the names of them. I have seen Yesterday, which I thought was okay, but not great. I have also seen District 9, which I didn’t care for that much. I have loads of films that I own to watch, some that I borrow from places like the library or other people but maybe I can squeeze in some African ones as well. What I have seen is films that take place in Africa such as the Battle of Algiers, The Last King of Scotland and Hotel Rwanda which I enjoyed. I currently own an imac g3 so I don’t how the streaming of movies works on a computer like the one I have. I think I’m going to have to get a more advanced computer to watch anything off of MUBI or anything off of the internet to see it in the best quality. Is it possible that some of these films are on Youtube? Maybe I can find some of these titles at one of the libraries around where I live, but I’m not certain if I will be successful. I would like to see more cinema from places that Americans really do not have much exposure to such as the Middle East, parts of Asia and Africa as well. I sometimes like to watch a film from a lesser known place, because it shows you a different culture and a new way to view things. Anyways, I think you have a great idea going here.
Lets bump this thread…………….
11 days to the deadline for this poll. I hope we can gather a few more lists together before the end.
I have had a few replies from some top African directors and producers so I hope this poll will be a great mix from users here and from some well established names in the industry…
well , since I heard about this poll I had started an attempt to recollect what I forgot and try to cover the most important African films to finalize a top ten list that would fair and collective however I couldn’t …. so as far as I am concerned now my list would mainly concentrate on Egyptian and North African Films and will be a mix between the top (in my opinion) and the my favourites ….
I want also to say that though I couldn’t come out with a list that satisfies my " perfectionist " wishes but this poll was of great importance for me as it brought back my interest to mainly the Egyptian and north african cinema that were out of my concentration for more than 3 years now …
1- Saladin (1963) ~ Yussef Chahine .
2- Battle Of Algiers (1966) ~ Gillo Pontecorvo
3- Closed Doors (1999) ~ Atef Hetata
4- Land Of Fear (1999) ~ Dauod Abdel Sayed
5- I Love Cinema (2004) ~ Oussama Fawzy
6- The Mummy OR Night Of The Counting Years (1966) ~ Shadi Abdel Salam
7- Chronicles Of The Years Of Fire (1975) ~ Mohamed Lakhdar Hamina
8- Alexandria why ? (1979) ~ Youssef Chahine
9- Cairo Station (1958) ~ Youssef Chahine
10- The Woman’s Game (1946) ~ Wali Ed din Sameh
with special mention to the following :
Casanegra (2008) : this Morrocan film is one of my very favourite of all time …
Lashin (1938) : An essential film for those who are interested in the history of Egyptian cinema and one of the oldest Grand scale Egyptian and African films … it just merely went out of my top list .
Al Mosafer (2011) : official selection in venice film festival and a real break through in the Egyptian cinema in my opinion … a real artistic non commercial Egyptian film .
Terrorrism and Barbeque (1992) : just a wonderful comic analysis of the relation between the people and government in Egypt in the begining of the 90s… one of the true classics of the Egyptian cinema .
Burried Secrets (2008) : A very shocking Tunisian film !!
Nasser 56 (1996) and The Days Of Sadat (2000) : these two films are examples of extraordinary acting … Ahmed Zaki one of the best Egyptian actors of all time playing the roles of the two former Egyptian presidents Nasser in the first and Sadat in the second and just giving an amazing Imitation of the two characters … just like real …
and in the end a great thanks to Kuxa Kanema for his great efforts in the field of African cinema …. you are doing a great amazing job man ,
1- Saladin (1963)
Hey, I made Spanish subs for this one some months ago.
wow , A great job Angel …. it must have been a tough task , its a long film … I can’t imagine how many lines it is !!
Specifically, 1181 lines. I guess the English and French subtitles that I used for translation are a bit condensed.
Okay, here we go:
Top 10 (one per director)
The Nightingale’s Prayer (Henry Barakat, 1959)
The Land (Youssef Chahine, 1969)
The Night of Counting the Years (Chadi Abdel Salam, 1969)
The Child of Another (Jean Pierre Dikongue-Pipa, 1975)
Xala (Ousmane Sembene, 1975)
Work (Souleymane Cissé, 1979)
Yaaba (Idrissa Ouedraogo, 1989)
The Silences of the Palace (Moufida Tlatli, 1994)
A Summer in La Goulette (Férid Boughedir, 1996)
The Gate of the Sun (Yousry Nasrallah, 2004)
Special mentions 1 (more Chahine and Sembene)
Cairo Station
The Money Order
Special mentions 2 (the first African movie I remember seeing)
The Gods Must Be Crazy
Special mentions 3 (partially African movies)
Chocolat
Cry the Beloved Country
Noirs et blancs en couleur
The Battle of Algiers
The Naked Prey
Jean Rouch’s documentaries
Special mentions 4 (21st century)
Ali Zaoua: Prince of the Streets
Bamako
Teza
The Yacoubian Building
Tsotsi
Special mentions 5 (greatest scene)
O Soleil (the white woman disappointed with her black lover)
Wanted (too many but above all)
A Beginning and an End
Sambizanga
The Sin
Dennis Brian
Dust Devil (1992): Richard Stanley
Animals Are Beautiful People (1974): Jamie Uys
Teranga Blues (2007): Moussa Sene Absa
Madame Brouette (2002) : Moussa Sene Absa
Rocking Poponguine (1999) Moussa Sene Absa
Mandabi (1968): Ousmane Sembène
The Angel of Mercy (1946): Youssef Wahbi