Afrika Eye festival reveals 2022 film programme

The 11-day 16th edition of Afrika Eye, the south-west’s biggest celebration of African cinema and culture, returns from November 7-17 with a typically impressive programme of film screenings across Bristol.

First up on November 8 is the French documentary Les Fleurs du Bitume, which follows three creative young women fighting patriarchy in the streets of Tunis. The screening takes place in the cinema room of Bristol University’s Humanities building as part of an Art and Activism event for young people. This includes a post-screening discussion chaired by Professor Siobhan Shilton with the film’s director Caroline Péricard, journalist Melissa Chamam, and live Zoom participation from one of the stars, Tunis-based graffiti artist Ouméma.

Windmill Hill City Farm is the venue for a Somali celebration on November 14, which includes another screening of the much-acclaimed recent drama The Gravedigger’s Wife. Khadar Ayderus Ahmed’s directorial debut is the story of an impoverished gravedigger who risks everything to save his wife and family. Unveiled during Critics Week in Cannes 2021, this was a hit on the international festival circuit and became the first Somali film to be marketed to a wide audience in the UK.

A weekend of screenings at the Watershed from November 11-13 brings a mix of new releases and old favourites from the archive. Opening film Le Bleu du Caftan is a Moroccan drama about married couple Halim and Mina, who run a caftan emporium in one of the oldest medinas in the northwestern Moroccan city of Salé. They also have a big secret: Halim is gay. With business booming, the couple take on an eager, handsome young male apprentice. It’s not long before matters come to a head. This screening is followed by a free opening night party in the Watershed café/bar which includes a performance by Harare, a band fronted by Zimbabwean marimba maestro Kuda Matimba (ex-Bhundu Boys).

Other new films being shown over the weekend include the Dardennes brothers’ Cannes award-winning Tori and Lokita, which tells the story of two teenage African migrants struggling to survive in Belgium, and the regional premiere of Tug of War, a story of forbidden love set against the backdrop of the struggle for Zanzibar’s independence.

Sambizanga

Marking the 50th anniversary of the premiere of the first film to be directed by a woman in Africa, Sarah Maldoror’s Sambizanga returns to the big screen as part of the Watershed programme. This 1972 drama is based on the true story of Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) member Domingos de Oliviera, who was captured and tortured by Portuguese forces, and his wife’s quest to find him.

Also back on screen is the 2010 hit arthouse documentary Benda Bilili. A cynic might be tempted to locate Staff Benda Bilili in that ever-popular sub-genre of world music usually comprising African acts who have endured unimaginable hardship, poverty and/or physical disability, which is used as a badge of authenticity to market their music to wealthy liberal European audiences. Hailing from the streets of Kinshasa, they comprise a group of homeless, paraplegic chaps playing beaten-up old guitars, and an able-bodied youth who twangs away furiously on an improvised instrument that consists of a single string attached to an empty milk can. They play the kind of sunny, danceable African pop that goes down a treat over here, with lyrics that manage to be upbeat and positive despite their grim, autobiographical subject matter. Filmed over six years, the documentary is an unpolished, fly-on-the-wall affair that traces a familiar path. After recording a CD, the musicians’ goal is to reach “beautiful Europe”, about which they have some amusing ideas, in order to earn enough loot to feed their families. There’s much fish-out-of-water fun when they get here and the festival performance footage is suitably triumphant.

There’s more music in Casablanca Beats, Morocco’s selection entry for Best International feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards, which follows a group of teenagers who aspire to stage a rap concert. This is showing in the Trinity Centre’s Fyffe Room on November 15 at the culmination of a symposium accompanying the More Than a Number photographic exhibition.

Check the Afrika Eye website for the full programme and ticket details. Tickets for the Watershed weekend screenings can be purchased directly from the Watershed box office.

Main pic: Les Fleurs du Bitume. Image: Keren Production. All other images; Afrika Eye

Read more: Afrika Eye announces dance, theatre, music and photography events alongside its film line-up