Celebrating Africa’s strong showing at 73rd edition of the Berlin International Film Festival

Of the A-list film festivals, the Berlinale, which ran from 16 to 26 February, is perhaps the most welcoming of global diversity and, through several initiatives, has often supported African filmmakers and their projects. 

But even an institution with this much intention will have its blind spots. There has, for instance, been no African title in the festival’s main competition since 2019. This year was no different although South African John Trengove (Inxeba) directs American stars Jesse Eisenberg and Adrian Brody in the toxic masculinity competition entry Manodrome. 

Other parts of the Berlinale are less bleak. In the Panorama section, which embraces titles threaded with queer, feminist and political thought, the Nigerian film All the Colours of the World are Between Black and White directed by Babatunde Apalowo made a big splash. 

Set in Lagos, the intimate drama follows two men struggling with their romantic attraction in a hostile environment. 

“In a way, it is a personal story because it is one of unrequited love and almost everyone can relate to that,” Apalowo told The Continent in Berlin. Screenings at the Berlinale were sold out, and it was the surprise winner of the festival’s queer film prize: the Teddy Award for best feature film. 

Panorama’s audience prize in the fiction category went to Sira, directed by prolific Burkinabè filmmaker Apolline Traoré. The survival thriller stars newcomer Nafissatou Cissé in the titular role as a young nomad with an unbreakable spirit. Cissé’s Sira seeks revenge after her family suffers a brutal attack on their way to her wedding. 

The film positions itself as a feminist counterpoint to male-dominated reporting from the Sahel region, and boldly takes a stand against Islamist terror while tackling thorny issues like the weaponisation of sex — against both women and men — during periods of conflict. 

“I just wanted to tell the world what happens in my country and perhaps give some hope to the people,” Traoré said. 

Another drama about a bride in distress was screened, in the Forum, a section independently curated as part of the festival. From Rwanda comes Myriam U Birara’s The Bride. 

Receiving a special mention by the jury awarding the best first feature award of the festival, it is a stark and provocative period piece set a few years after the Rwandan genocide. Eva (Sandra Umulisa), a bright young woman with big dreams, is kidnapped and raped. 

This assault is revealed to be part of a traditional practice known as Guterura — weaponised sex and enforced pregnancy to replace lives lost in the genocide — in which the woman is forced into marriage with her abductor after terms are negotiated by both families. 

On the documentary side, first time feature director Thierno Souleymane Diallo presented a rare film from Guinea. The Cemetery of Cinema traces the history of film in Guinea while documenting the filmmaker’s search for Mouramani, a lost classic from 1953 believed to be the first film ever made in the country. 

Diallo’s complex and surprisingly emotional journey takes him across Guinea and eventually to France as he considers the colonial and structural histories that afflict the archiving of film on the continent. 

In A Golden Life, Boubacar Sangaré follows a group of children as they labour at a gold mine in southern Burkina Faso. Sangaré, who himself worked in the mines, follows his subjects for years, exploring the humanity in them as they work under precarious conditions.

This article first appeared in The Continent, the pan-African weekly newspaper produced in partnership with the Mail & Guardian. It’s designed to be read and shared on WhatsApp. Download your free copy here.