A large contingent of new African films screened as part of the International Film
Festival of Rotterdam. The festival, which concluded on Sunday 2 February, is
one the largest international audience-driven film festivals, with a focus on
innovative and talented filmmaking. The following films comprised part of the
2014 programme:
Berea
South African director, Vincent Moloi, tells the compelling story of an anxious
elderly Jewish gentleman who finds himself disoriented by the drastic
urbanisation of his neighbourhood.
Visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr37vFBfZak to view the trailer.
Walk With Me
A film which was shot in Uganda and completed in Denmark, combining animation
and feature film techniques, shows how children understand themes of life and
death as well as good and evil. The movie is described as “a visual poem’
directed by Johan Oettinger and Peter Tukei Muhumuza.
Visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvuqpzVO57o to view the trailer.
Shoeshine
Tanzanian director Amil Shivji offers social commentary on Tanzania’s Dar es
Salaam’s society, through the story a street shoeshine man and a bar owner.
Visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLDaQeGlmOQ to view the trailer.
Salvation Army
Abdellah Taia is a Moroccan writer based in France who tells the story of a boy in
Casablanca who discovers he can earn money through homosexuality. The film,
based on Taia’s novel, explores what it’s like to be gay in the Arab world, and to
be a homosexual Arab living in the Western world.
Visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_CB0aVpKsw to view the trailer.
It’s Us
Inspired by the Kenyan election riots of 2007, Kenyan director Nick Reding uses
a combination of film and theatre to comment on suspicion and mistrust in a
delicate community.
Visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmhIPOigon0 to view the trailer.
For more information on the festival, visit:
http://www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com/en/ for more information.
