“Don’t chase me away”: The crisis of social belonging in tumultuous times A desperate mother makes a painful sacrifice: she sends her son away to an uncertain future in order to spare him from an almost certain death.  The last thing she tells him is “Go, live and become” and these words will resonate heavily [...]

Somewhere in West Africa, Karaba is a mean sorceress who has killed almost an entire generation of warriors. She is so loathed and feared that she lives away from the village, on top of a hill, where her only friends are dreadful walking trees and little robot-like spies that keep her informed at all times. [...]

The State of Denial is a heartbreaking documentary that explores the difficulties HIV-infected South Africans face on a daily basis. And their inspiring struggles. It provides an insider’s view, South African born director Elaine Epstein, into the complicated factors that allow HIV/AIDS to spread at such an alarming speed. The documentary focuses on what used [...]

There are no easy solutions in life, and Disgrace, the movie adaptation of Nobel Laureate J.M. Coetzee’s Booker Prize winning novel of the same name, tends to express that reality more dramatically than any movie I have watched in recent years. Before going into details about the movie, I would to stress the fact that [...]

Written, directed and filmed by famous South African director Jamie Uys, this hilarious documentary about the anthropomorphized creatures living in the Namib Desert will most likely be enjoyed by children, young folks and adults alike.  Animals are Beautiful People is dedicated to the creatures that were able to adapt to the extremely harsh conditions of [...]

Jean-Pierre Bekolo is an African film director of great potential. Like many other African directors he does not have the luxury of a hefty budget to be allocated to his productions but that has not stopped him from creating some of the most astute, entertaining  and delightful movies to emerge out of Africa. After having [...]

”Angolan children got guns for Christmas; European kids got grapes,” I had troubles with watching this movie and reviewing it. I have postponed this job for months.  Now, I finally think I have a clear mind to look at it objectively, but I’m still not sure of that. Some of you might now that Tanzania [...]

I watched Mandela: Son of Africa, Father of a Nation (1996) several months ago yet I decided not to write anything about it until now. It is quite difficult to judge the movie on its own since it is more of a tribute than an independent inquiry. Our beliefs do not change after watching the [...]

From filmmakers Dara Kell and Christopher Nizza comes a very short documentary about the lives of thousands of people still living in slum-like dwellings. After spending a week in Abahlali baseMjondolo in December 2007, the directors compiled this short but powerful documentary which allows ordinary people to talk about their problems, anxieties and daily struggles. [...]

Jaguar (1967) is a movie by famous French moviemaker, anthropologist, explorer and storyteller Jean Rouch. He has spent more than sixty years making movies in Africa, thus creating a new movie style called ethnofiction. He is widely considered to be the father of Nigerien movie industry (Niger, not Nigeria) as he is the first director [...]