Category: The official competition

Mulika

Synopsis

Un ‘afronaute’ surgit de l’épave d’un vaisseau spatial dans le cratère volcanique du mont Nyiragongo. Alors qu’il descend dans la ville en contrebas, rencontrant les habitants de l’actuel Gomas, il commence à comprendre ce qu’il doit faire pour changer l’avenir de son people.

 Biofilmographie

Maisha Maene est un scénariste et réalisateur congolaise basé à Gomas, en République démocratique du Congo. Artiste afro futuriste, il s’intéresse aux questions des droits de l’homme et de l’environnement, et cherche à reconstruire la société fragmentée de son pays. En plus de divers projets collaboratifs, Maisha a écrit et réalisé trois courts métrages, ‘Regard,’ ‘Mother nature,’ et ‘Apa’.

Mariam

Synopsis

Mariam, drawn face and rebellious look, drives her Peugeot. Ready to take on the world to reclaim the custody of her son, 4 years old, the road ahead of her is not the one she expected.

Biography

Graduated from the script department of Paris X-Nanterre University, Lionel Meta directed and self-produced two short films, Je me marierai avec mon père et La Métaphore du Manioc. Mariam is his first produced short film. He currently develops a TV show about the prison world.

DIMANCHE MATIN

Synopsis

Gabriela, une jeune pianiste, s’apprête à jouer à son premier récital majeur. Mais un rêve sur sa défunte mère déstabilise l’esprit et le cœur de Gabriela, mettant en danger sa prestation. A partir d’une série d’étranges rencontres au cours d’une journée, Gabriela entreprend un voyage de réconciliation avec ses souvenirs et sa mère.

Biofilmographie

Bruno Ribeiro est né à Rio de Janeiro et a grandi entre le Portugal et le Brésil. Il a écrit, réalisé et monté des courts métrages présentés à des festivals tels que Doclisboa, Roterdã et la Berlinale. Son dernier court métrage “Manhã de Domingo” (2022) a remporté l’Ours d’argent à la Berlinale. Le réalisateur travaille actuellement sur son premier film long métrage “Zion”, qui a participé à des ateliers d’écriture et à des marchés tels que Torino Film Lab, BrLab, CineMundi et Ventana Sur.

KHADIGA

Synopsis

Khadiga, 18 ans, vit seule avec son bébé après le départ de son mari pour travailler dans une ville éloignée. Lors d’une journée ordinaire, après avoir terminé ses tâches ménagères, elle se fraye un chemin avec son bébé, dans l’agitation des rues du Caire, pour rendre visite à une amie et à sa mère. Mais Khadiga se sent mal à l’aise et elle décide de marcher seule et de fuir la pression.

Biographie

‏Morad est un cinéaste égyptien né au Caire. Il a été assistant-réalisateur sur plusieurs films indépendants. Morad a également collaboré en tant que réalisateur exécutif sur le long métrage “Souad” – sélection officielle au Festival du Film de Cannes en 2020 et à la Berlinale. Il a écrit et réalisé deux courts métrages, “Henet Ward” et “What we don’t know about Mariam“, qui ont tous fait leur première mondiale à Clermont-Ferrand et ont été sélectionnés dans d’autres grands festivals, remportant plus de 30 prix internationaux.

Mataha

Synopsis

A girl in her mid-twenties faces her fears while undergoing a major surgery that will change her entire life forever.

Biofilmography

Ahmed NADER was born in Alexandria in 1986. In 2017, He directed his first short fiction film “Affability”.

The Pyramid

Synopsis

An ancient Egyptian tries to build an inverted pyramid.

Biofilmography

Mohamed GHAZALA is assistant professor of animation and the chair and founder of Cinematic Arts School of Effat University/ Saudi Arabia, besides being the Vice President of the Int’l Animated Film Association, ASIFA, and the founder of its first chapter in Africa and in the Arab world. Ghazala directed and co-directed many awarded films, such as “Carnival” (2001), “Crazy Works” (2002), “HM HM” (2005),”Sayari Yetu” (2006), including the first Yemen’s animated film “Salma” in 2006, and “Honyan’s Shoe” (2009). He gave a number of workshops on animation in different countries and acted as a film
consultant for several international festivals. In 2011, he published his first book under the title “Animation in the Arab World”. His second book with title “Animation in Africa” which published in Egypt 2013. Ghazala mainly concentrates in making independent experimental animated films on his
own or in the course of workshops or art residencies.

Omi Nobu,The New Man

Synopsis

Quirino, a 76-year-old man, has lived for over 30 years in an abandoned village, in a deep valley, between the sea and the mountains. Feeling old, Quirino faces a dilemma of either to leave the only place he’s ever known or end his days there.

Biofilmography

Carlos Yuri Ceuninck studied and obtained a degree in cinema at EICTV in Cuba. He has made several documentaries including Listen and Sea; Without Taste; To Beef or Not to Beef, that’s the Question on the Isle of Mú (selected by many international festivals) ;and The Master Plan. In 2020, Dona Mónica received a special jury mention at Saint-Louis International Documentary Festival in Senegal. The New Man was short-listed to pitch at Ouaga Film Lab 2020 (Burkina Faso) winning 3 awards.

MK, l’armée secrète de Mandela

Synopsis

The film traces the history of former members of uMkhonto weSizwe (MK for short), the military wing of the ANC founded by Nelson Mandela, the father of the South Africa nation. The Western international history of this man tends to conceal the fact the was sentenced to life in prison for founding and leading MK. Also, before he became a wise old pacifist, he was a revolutionary at the head of a guerrilla army.

Biofilmography

Osvalde Lewat is a multi-award-winning writer, photographer and documentary director whose work focus primarily on social and political issues. Osvalde Lewat is a graduate of Sciences-Po Paris and has completed training courses in image at Femis in Paris and at the National Institute of Image and Sound (INIS) in Montreal. Broadcast by more than seventy TV channels around the world, her films have travelled the five continents and received several international awards.

Al Djanat (Paradis Originel)

Synopsis

The death of my uncle, a religious authority in the region, led to a Western-inspired court case, breaking with a centuries-old tradition of oral legacy : a “social bomb” in the making in West African societies. Our courtyard becomes the theatre where the future of an iconic family is at stake.

Biofilmography

Chloé Aïcha BORO is a French-Burkinabé writer and director. After studying modern literature, she began working as a journalist in the press, radio and television. Her novel “Paroles d’orpheline” was published by L’Harmattan and she directed her first feature documentary “Farafin ko“, which won awards at several festivals and was broadcast on Public Sénat and TV5 Monde. Then “France goodbye, le nouveau commerce triangulaire” – Best Documentary Film at the Vues d’Afrique Festival in Montreal. Her latest film “Le loup d’or de Balolé” was awarded best documentary film at FESPACO 2019.

Or de vie

Synopsis

In Burkina Faso, in the gold panning site of Kalgouli, 16 years old Rasmané goes down to more than 100 meters in artisanal mines for gold. Worried by potential accidents, torn by his parents’ doubts, Rasmané makes his way through this fierce adult world hoping for emancipation and better life, at the cost of his innocence. Gold panning is corrupting, moving you abruptly from childhood to adulthood, as it corrupts its natural environment through pollution and destruction.

Biofilmography

Boubacar Sangaré is a writer-director and also a lawyer specializing in film law. In 2015 he co-directed a TV documentary on the 2014 social uprising in Burkina Faso and went on to develop two feature films Or de vie and Djéliya, mémoire du mandingue. He worked as Africa Cooperation Mission Officer at CNC and TV5Monde Afrique Programme Officer. In 2021, he was a member of FESPACO International selection committee.