This year, the Berlinale will have few African titles in its official selection. Founded in 1951, this A-list festival supports African projects through its World Cinema Fund and promotes emerging talents, thanks to its Berlinale Talents programme.
At Berlinale, Africa is generally represented at the Forum, a non-competitive section where most of the World Cinema Fund projects end up – with a few famous exceptions that have occasionally had the chance to shine in the main competition.
Senegal and Tunisia at the Forum
Rama Thiaw’s documentary The Revolution Won’t Be Televised, co-produced by Boul Fallé Images (Senegal), Vrai Vrai Films and TV Rennes 35 (France), will premiere at the Forum. Following two hip-hop activists from the band Les Keur-Gui – part of the Y’en A Marre (‘We Are Fed Up’) movement – Rama Thiaw analyses how hip-hop artists mobilised Senegalese people against president Abdoulaye Wade’s wish to be re-elected.
Mohamed Ben Attias’ feature Hedi, produced by Nomadis Images (Tunisia) with support from the Doha Film Institute (Qatar), will also be part of the Forum. The story depicts a male character, Hedi, who endures his mother’s pressure to get married but falls in love with an activity leader full of insouciance and frivolity. Previously selected at the Locarno Open Doors programme the feature was removed by Nomadis Images because of the Israeli/Maghreb polemic (see Screen Africa, September 2015 issue).
Panorama features South Africa, Algeria and Morocco
In the Panorama section, Oliver Schmitz will come back with Shepherds and Butchers, a South Africa-USA-Germany co-production starring Steve Coogan and Andrea Riseborough, about a hot-shot lawyer who faces his biggest test when he agrees to defend a prison guard who has killed seven men.
French-Algerian filmmaker Rachid Bouchareb is also selected with Road to Istanbul, an Algeria-French-Belgium co-production about a mother looking for her 20-year old daughter on her way to do jihad in Syria.
Moroccan filmmaker Hicham Lasri will also screen his fourth feature Starve Your Dog which had its World premiere at Toronto in 2015.
Chad and Ghana at Berlinale Shorts
Out of the 26 international shorts selected this year, two are representing the continent.
Co-produced by Chad, Canada and Saudi Arabia, Oustaz by American director Bentley Brown, is representing Chad. Based on the director’s documentary feature Khawadjat which re-visits his childhood in Chad, Oustaz relates how a filmmaker returns home to Chad in the 2000s after the death of his Arabic teacher, who first introduced him to the world of filmmaking.
Winner of the 2014 AMAA Best Short Film for Kwaku Ananse, American-Ghanaian director Akosua Adoma Owusu presents Reluctantly Queer, an eight-minute short film constructed in epistolary Super 8 form. In this Ghana/US production, a Ghanaian son struggles to reconcile his love for his mother with his attraction to members of his own sex, amid the increased tensions incited by same-sex politics in Ghana.
Both filmmakers were Talent alumni in Berlin (2008, 2014) and Durban (2011, 2015).
21 Africans at Berlinale Talent
Berlinale Talent (previously known as Talent Campus) is a six-day training programme which unites 300 emerging film professionals divided into different film disciplines: writers, directors, producers, cinematographers, actors, editors, distributors, production designers, composers, sound designers and film journalists.
In 2016, 21 Africans will travel to Germany to enter the programme:
Four from Kenya – actor Paul Ogola; directors Se’ydou Mukali and Philippa Ndissi-Herrmann; and editor Taabu (nominated for Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards for Best Editing).
Two from South Africa: directors Sibs Shongwe-La Mer (Best South African Filmmaker at the Durban International Film Festival 2015 (DIFF 2015) and Mpumolelo Mcata.
Two from Ethiopia: director Hiwot Getaneh (selected at Toronto in 2015 with her short New Eyes) and editor Hende Birhanu.
Two from Ghana: directors Sam Kessie (selected at Locarno Open Doors 2014) and Juliet Asante (nominated for Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards for Best African Film in 2016).
Two from Uganda: producer Fibby Kioira, (from Maisha Film Lab) and actor Lot.
Two from Nigeria: screenwriter Oluwakemi Adesoye and film critic Isabella Akinseye.
Two from Egypt: film critic Rasha Hosny and distributor Ahmed Sobky.Then one each from Sudan (Hajooj Kuka, awarded at Toronto 2014 with Beats of the Antonov), Cameroon (Christa Eka Assem), Morocco (Rim Naïr), Ivory Coast (Kamso) and one from Burkina Faso (Koudous Seihon).
Three projects for next year?
Supported by the Federal Foundation for Culture and in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut, the Foreign Ministry and German producers; Berlinale’s World Cinema Fund works to develop and support cinema in regions with a weak film infrastructure, while fostering cultural diversity in German cinemas.
Last November, two African films received a World Cinema Fund grant: Suhaib Gasmelbari’s documentary The Waiting Bench (Sudan), produced by Mahamat Saleh-Haroun’s company Goï Goï Productions (Chad), received €30 000 while French-Senegalese filmmaker Alain Gomis’ fourth feature Felicity, produced by Cinekap (Senegal) was awarded €40 000.
Earlier in July – just before receiving a grant from the Locarno Open Doors programme – Narimane Mari’s project Madmen’s Fort (Algeria), produced by Allers Retours Films (Algeria) also received €40 000.
