Genre Drama (85)

Edward Simelane wins for his remarkable stone sculpture, called Mother and Child. But unbeknown to him, the competition is for whites only. In the ensuing national furore, the absurdities of legalised racial discrimination are gently, but tellingly, revealed.

Following a violent rupture with Amr, his long-time preferred actor, the director Yehia Eskandarany (alias Youssef Chahine), is obliged to place his entire career under scrutiny. Nothing looks familiar any longer; neither his country, nor cinema he knows.

This ironic parable explores the proliferation of pseudo-Christian sects in Africa. A pig herder, despised by the whole of his village, starts a new sect after seeing a vision in which he is told that he has been chosen by God to save his people.

When his fellow Senegalese villagers and tribesmen sorely need funds to see them through a terrible drought, the young protagonist of this classic film is sent to find his brother in Paris. His mission is to find work in the French capital and send money back home so that the villagers can buy food.

Amina (Leila Nassim) is a quiet, married Muslim woman living in Tunis with her two daughters. She is allowed certain freedoms as a Muslim woman, but is generally not allowed out on her own. Her life becomes increasingly restricted, especially after she meets up with her old school friend Aida (Amel Hédhili).

Fred (Jacques Penot), a photographer, has arrived in Tunisia to do a story on the Bezness. The Bezness are young gigolos of all ages who sell their bodies to tourists. Out of place in a world where the image is regarded as a violation and its very representation taboo, Fred finds protection from Roufa (Abdel Kechiche).

A cart-taxi driver goes to the city to make a living, but out of sympathy with other poverty-stricken people, he works for free and goes hungry himself.

Burkina Faso filmmaker Gaston Kabore revisits the characters from his acclaimed 1982 debut Wend Kuuni in this drama with fantasy elements. Wend Kuuni (Serge Yanogo), the son of a sorceress, was raised by foster parents and grew up to become a respected citizen in his village.

This charming, nostalgic but never sentimental film is a recollection of life and rivalries in the Senegalese seaside village of Poponguine in 1964, seen through the eyes of an enterprising young scallywag.

Ousmane Sembene and Thiermo Faty Sow, who wrote and directed this searing critique of colonialism, based it on history and personal experience. During World War Two, Senegalese soldiers fight for their colonisers, the French.

The Ceddo try to preserve their traditional African culture against the onslaught of Islam, Christianity, and the slave trade. When King Demba sides with the Muslims, the Ceddo kidnap his daughter, Princess Dior Yacine, to protest against their forced conversion to Islam.

In Cameroon, Sobgui is a 'Clando', an illegal (clandestine) taxicab driver. It’s not an easy life. There’s hostility from the yellow cabs and constant police harassment.