THE AFRICAN COURIER. Reporting Africa and its Diaspora! The African Courier is an international magazine published in Germany to report on Africa and the Diaspora African experience. The first issue of the bimonthly magazine appeared on the newsstands on 15 February 1998. The African Courier is a communication forum for European-African political, economic and cultural exchanges, and a voice for Africa in Europe.
‘AFRIKAMERA – Latest Cinema from Africa’ presents, from 7 – 11 November in Berlin, a selection of current feature and documentary films from Angola, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique.
The festival presents the latest productions by filmmakers from Lusophone Africa dealing not only with history but also issues such as gender, religion or urbanity and reflect cultural, social and political developments.
In addition, outstanding productions from other regions of Africa are part of the 2019 program, christened Africa Lusofonia, which aims to provide festival visitors with new perspectives on the African continent.
The festival opens on 7 November with the comedy Keteke by the Ghanaian Peter Kofi Sedufia. Situated in Ghana of the 1980s, the film tells the story of the involuntary odyssey of the heavily pregnant Atswei and her husband Bio. The couple want to travel by train to the hometown of Akete, but then got stranded by a chain of unfortunate circumstances in the hinterland. Then a crazy race against time begins. The director will be present at the Berlin premiere.
The festival closes on 11 November with the German premiere of the Senegalese director Mamadou Dia, Baamun Nafi – Nafis Father. The debut film, celebrated at the Locarno Film Festival, tells the story of two brothers’ arguments about the imminent wedding of their children. While young Nafi and her cousin Tokala wish to get marry and make plans for the future of moving to Dakar, their father, a local religious leader, strongly opposes them because his brother Ousmane is a follower of a fundamentalist Islamic sect. The main actor Alassane Sy will be present for the premiere.
Altogether more than 10 feature films in addition to shorts will be screened at the week-long festival, which also features a series of workshops and networking events.
With ‘AFRIKAMERA – Latest Cinema from Africa’, the non-profit cultural association toucouleur e.V. using the medium of film presents to the Berlin audience the diversity of the African continent, which does not only consist of problems such as violence, diseases and natural disasters. These stereotypical images and opinions are juxtaposed with the diverse facets of everyday life in Africa and brought to life for the moviegoers.
The festival’s venue is the prestigious Kino Arsenal at the Postdamerplatz in the centre of Berlin.
Femi Awoniyi
For the full programme of AFRIKAMERA 2019, visit: http://www.afrikamera.de
