International: Africa
ON BECOMING A GUINEA FOWL Review: Silence Cannot Be Endured
It's hard to imagine what any of us would do, if we were driving along a quite road and came across a dead body, let alone the body of a member of our family. For Shula (Susan Chardy), on her...
Rotterdam 2025 Reviews: THE TREE OF AUTHENTICITY And THE GREAT HISTORY OF WESTERN PHILOSOPHY, From Congo And Mexico
The IFFR Tiger Competition has a long tradition of narrative and also more experimental films. The following two films belong to the latter category. The Congolese film The Tree of Authenticity (L'Arbre de l'authenticité) from 2025 and the Mexican The...
Montreal Nouveau 2024 Review: ON BECOMING A GUINEA FOWL
It's hard to imagine what any of us would do, if we were driving along a quite road and came across a dead body, let alone the body of a member of our family. For Shula (Susan Chardy), on her...
BeyondFest 2024 Review: ZERO, Servicable Thriller With a Stern Message From It's Creator
Two Americans wake up in Dakar, the capital of Senegal, with bombs strapped to their chests. The timers on the vests tell them they have less than nine hours to find out why. Calling them #1 and #2 a mysterious...
New York 2024 Review: DAHOMEY, On Putting Souls Back
Mati Diop documents the repatriation of stolen African treasures from France.
Fantasia 2024 Review: 4PM, Where the Social Contract Is Weaponized
Jay Song’s two-hour implosion of the social contract, 4PM is delightfully frustrating, and terribly absurd. It is loosely based on the Belgian novel The Stranger Next Door, written by Francophone author Amélie Nothomb, and plays as if that scene from ‘The Burbs —...
Friday One Sheet: RED ISLAND
When you have a film as gorgeously composed and framed as one by Robin Campillo (120 BPM), and set in one of the most beautiful places on earth (Madagascar), one of the best practices is to simply use a frame...
Tribeca 2024 Review: SEARCHING FOR AMANI Finds Itself in a Turf War Between Kenyan Farmers and Pastoralists
Questionable directorial influences undermine a nonfiction feature, directed by Nicole Gormley and Debra Aroko.
Tribeca 2024 Review: THE WEEKEND, Guess Who's Coming To Dinner?
The horror of introducing a new partner to one’s family is a very real thing. We all have skeletons in our closets; embarrassing relatives, trepidation about showing someone where we come from, rituals and traditions that we only realize are...
PREY Exclusive Clip: "We Have to Go West Or We Die"
A young couple is compelled to leave their Christian missionary station in the Kalahari Desert after being threatened with death by an extremist militant gang. After crashing their aircraft they must battle man and beast for their lives.
PREY 'The Crash' Clip: Action Thriller Starring Ryan Phillippe, Emile Hirsch And Mena Suvari Coming Next Week
A young couple is compelled to leave their Christian missionary station in the Kalahari Desert after being threatened with death by an extremist militant gang. After crashing their aircraft they must battle man and beast for their lives. We're going...
Friday One Sheet: BUSHMAN 1971
In the twilight of the 1960s, America was frothing with political unrests, assassinations, and racial tension. David Schickele's hangin' out movie cum documentary slash film essay from 1971, Bushman, gets a 4K restoration, and a handsome, grainy black and white poster....
International Documentary Festival Amsterdam: THE CEMETERY OF CINEMA Review
Mouramani, a film by Mamadou Touré made in the mid fifties, was by all accounts the first African film shot in the French language. But nobody in Guinea seems to have seen it, as director Thierno Souleymane Diallo is finding...
BREATHING IN: Trailer And Poster For New South African Horror Film From GAIA's Jaco Bouwer
Watch the gorgeous trailer for the new horror flick from South African director Jaco Bouwer, which will have its world premiere at Brooklyn Horror Film Fest next week.
MAMI WATA Review: A Singularly Enthralling Experience
Directed by CJ "Fiery" Obasi, the Nigerian film stars Rita Edochie, Uzoamaka Aniunoh, Evelyne Ily Juhen, and Emeka Amakeze.
Vlissingen 2023 Review: SIRA Survives
One of the nice surprises at the Film by the Sea Festival in Vlissingen was the unexpected warm weather, a nice little hot after-Summer. A less nice surprise was that some of the venues at the festival did not have...
ASHKAL: THE TUNISIAN INVESTIGATION Review: Riveting Supernatural Noir
If a person sets themselves alight and no one sees it, does the act lose its meaning? Is a half-built housing complex still a potential home, or a constant reminder of impermenance? Can justice be served only through the law,...
MAMI WATA Teaser: CJ "Fiery" Obasi's Fantasy Adventure at Fantasia's Opening Weekend
When the harmony in a village is threatened by outside elements, two sisters must fight to save their people and restore the glory of a mermaid goddess to the land.
Exclusive: Poster & Trailer for Tunisian Supernatural Thriller ASHKAL
With a slightly new title, Ashkal: The Tunisian Investigation, this eeri mystery was something of a sleeper hit on the festival circuit in 2022. We're seeing a rise in more genre.leaning work coming from MENA countries; considering the rich folkloric...
ONCE UPON A TIME IN UGANDA Review: A Love Letter to the Power of Cinema
Cathryne Czubek directed the documentary, opening this week as part of Alamo Drafthouse's Fantastic Fest Presents series.
