AfricaIs aCountry

10 African films to watch out for

Africa Is a Country Podcast
African Five-a-Side Podcast

10 African films to watch out for

By
Tom Devriendt

http://youtu.be/tLyhZlgWIpM

This is a random selection of ten films we don’t know much about, yet, but which we hope to see once completed or screened at the nearest film festival. ‘The Door of No Return’ (La Puerta de No Retorno) follows Santiago Zannou who accompanies his father, Alphonse, to his homeland, Benin, 40 years after he left it. Trailer above.

‘Finding Mercy’ (which premieres at the Tri Continental Film Festival in Johannesburg this month) is about retrieving a childhood friendship in a newly independent Zimbabwe:

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/40136444 w=500&h=400]

‘Meanwhile in Mamelodi’ is a documentary by Benjamin Kahlmeyer on life in a Pretoria township during the 2010 World Cup:

‘Healers’, directed by Thomas Barry, highlights the work of The Umthombo Youth Development Foundation and tells the story of how a doctor and a matron at a rural South African hospital in KwaZulu Natal started a groundbreaking scholarship programme to enable local youth to qualify as healthcare professionals:

‘Gardens of my Ancestors’ is a short film by South African filmmaker Tsholofelo Monare:

‘After The Battle’ is an account of two people caught up in the Egyptian revolution:

‘Fidaï’ tells the story of an ex-fighter for Algerian independence, and has had its first screening at some recent film festivals:

‘The Hidden Smile’, a short film by Ventura Durall, set in the streets of Addis Abeba:

‘Walking at Dawn’ is a film by Silvia Firmino, set in Mozambique and premiering at the Dockanema Documentary Film Festival in Maputo this month:

And the trailer for ‘The Marshal of Finland’ had a few people up in arms in Finland. True, having a Kenyan actor to play the country’s most famous military figure is quite the coup.

Further Reading

Progress is exhausting

Pedro Pinho’s latest film follows a Portuguese engineer in Guinea-Bissau, exposing how empire survives through bureaucracy, intimacy, and the language of “development.”

The rubble of empire

Built by Italian Fascists in 1928, Mogadishu Cathedral was meant to symbolize “peaceful conquest.” Today its ruins force Somalis to confront the uneasy afterlife of colonial power and religious authority.

Atayese

Honored in Yorubaland as “one who repairs the world,” Jesse Jackson’s life bridged civil rights, pan-Africanism, empire, and contradiction—leaving behind a legacy as expansive as it was imperfect.

Bread or Messi?

Angola’s golden jubilee culminated in a multimillion-dollar match against Argentina. The price tag—and the secrecy around it—divided a nation already grappling with inequality.

Visiting Ngara

A redevelopment project in Nairobi’s Ngara district promises revival—but raises deeper questions about capital, memory, and who has the right to shape the city.

Gen Z’s electoral dilemma

Long dismissed as apathetic, Kenya’s youth forced a rupture in 2024. As the 2027 election approaches, their challenge is turning digital rebellion and street protest into political power.

A world reimagined in Black

By placing Kwame Nkrumah at the center of a global Black political network, Howard W. French reveals how the promise of pan-African emancipation was narrowed—and what its failure still costs Africa and the diaspora.

Securing Nigeria

Nigeria’s insecurity cannot be solved by foreign airstrikes or a failing state, but by rebuilding democratic, community-rooted systems of collective self-defense.