AFRIKAMERA SHORTS: CHANGE (SHORT FILM PROGRAM)

Burkina Faso / Ethiopia / Nigeria / Mali / France / Somalia | 2023–24 | Original version with English subtitles | 98 min
In the presence of Mariame N’Diaye (LANGUE MATERNELLE)

SUN NOV 16
15:00 CITY KINO WEDDING

LANGUE MATERNELLE

Mariame N’Diaye
Mali, France | 2024 | Original version with English subtitles | 24 min

In the 1980s, Sira, a young woman from Mali, lives a peaceful life in France with her husband Malick and their daughter Abi. Her daily life is conducted in Soninké, the only language she fully speaks. However, as Abi struggles with French, the school suggests placing her in a special support class and asks the parents to speak primarily French at home. Sira refuses.

Mariame N’Diaye began writing film and theater projects eight years ago on topics such as young women’s abstinence and the French language from the perspective of immigrants (she teaches French as a Foreign Language and English). Her interest lies in presenting people who are both ordinary and universal, suddenly confronted with a situation that confuses them and must be faced. N’Diaye’s dual French-Malian culture allows her to empathize with the different characters she creates while also being seen and heard as a Franco-Malian. In 2023, Mariame N’Diaye directed her first short film, LANGUE MATERNELLE, produced by Golgota Productions.

More movies:

SOUS LE RONIER

Baro Orokiatou
Burkina Faso | 2024 | Original version with English subs | 19 min

Struck by an incurable disease, Gnine, an unhappy wife, regrets her youthful love and sets out to experience one last moment of happiness. Between nostalgia for the past and hope, we follow her to her native village, where she introduces us to its rich culture.

OROKIATOU BARO was already leading a screenwriting club on the campus of the University of Ouagadougou while still a student. In 2014, she contributed to the script of the television series WAGA LOVE by Guy Désiré Yameogo.
After graduating with a degree in Communication Studies, specializing in film and audiovisual media, she directed five educational films related to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, before releasing her first short film, CE SOURIRE!, later that same year.
In 2024, she directed SOUS LE RÔNIER, her second short film. BARO is not only a filmmaker but also the author of a collection of short stories titled ENFIN L’AURORE and a comic book titled LE SOURIRE DE DJOUMA.

LE MÉDAILLON

Ruth Hunduma 
UK/ Ethiopia 2023 | Original version with English subs | 19  min

Ruth was a teenager when her mother passed down her Medallion, etched with a golden portrait of Nefertiti. Not only was this medallion an artefact, it was an emblem of her mother’s inconceivable plight: captured in middle school by the Derg communist military regime and raised in a prison camp for years. This story follows her early memories of the Derg Genocide and how she first became in possession of the medallion upon her escape.

RUTH HUNDUMA is an Ethiopian- Australian writer, director, photographer, actor and poet, based in London.
She is the recipient of the John Hay Lobban prize in English Literature from Birkbeck, University of London and has been featured in publications such as Dazed and Perfect Magazine. Ruth won the 2022 Film Fund as well as the 2022 BFI short documentary fund, to which she has now released two films. Her debut narrative film A BAND APART, premiered at the London Independent Film Festival and won Best Short Film (Directors UK Award).
Writer, Ruth was shortlisted and accepted into the 2021 Guy Ritchie Creative Access mentorship program and was selected to join the Independent Film Trust’s Catalyst program in 2022, for the top emerging talent in London. Ruth’s script WASTEMAN, was shortlisted for Centre Frame’s Get It Made Scheme, and is currently in development. Ruth also wrote a novel which won The Literary Consultancy’s Free Reads Scheme, she is currently editing the novel.

MUNA

Warda Mohamed
UK  2023 | Original version with English subs | 19 min 

British-Somali teen Muna is desperate to go on the school trip – to have fun with her mates, escape the monotony of her household and, of course, provide the greatest playlist of all time (!!). But her parents aren’t so sure. Tragedy strikes when her grandfather dies back in Somalia, and Muna must navigate a confusing mourning period for someone she never really knew  –all while still desperately hoping to persuade her mother to change her mind about the trip. As events collide at the wake, Muna reflects on her and her grandfather’s life, discovering there’s more that connects the two of them than she ever realized…

WARDA MOHAMED began her film career assisting on the 2019 production of Rocks by Sarah Gavron, where she consulted on elements of Somali representation. Her experimental short Sorry My Somali Is Not Very Good screened at BFI Southbank and at the Aesthetica Short Film Festival. She has also worked as a co-director in the theatre. An alumna of the BFI Network @ LFF talent programme, she participated in the writers’ room for the British TV comedy series We Are Lady Parts by Nida Manzoor. Muna was nominated for Best British Short at both the British Independent Film Awards and the London Critics’ Circle Film Awards and won Best Short Film at the British Short Film Award.

THE INCREDIBLE SENSATIONAL FIANCÉE OF SÈYI ÀJÀYI

Abbesi Akhamie
USA/ Nigeria 2024 I Original version with English subs | 17 min

In the African retro-futuristic society of Alkebulan, a brilliant scholar discovers her fiancé’s secret engagement and takes spectacular revenge, unexpectedly earning the recognition she always deserved.

ABBESI AKHAMIE is a Nigerian-American writer/director and producer born in Heidelberg, Germany. With an MFA in Film from New York University, Abbesi’s work centers the experiences and stories of Africa and its diaspora.
Her artistic journey began with the premiere of her debut short film, Still Water Runs Deep, at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it garnered critical acclaim and won the Best Student Short Film award at Aspen ShortsFest. Her subsequent short film, The Couple Next Door, premiered at Aspen ShortsFest and garnered the Audience Choice Award at the Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival. It is now available for streaming on the Criterion Collection. She was also selected for the prestigious Black Rock Artist Residency in Dakar, Senegal, founded by Kehinde Wiley, the renowned Obama presidential portraitist.
Currently, Abbesi is developing two feature films alongside a retro-futuristic series.
Her talent has been recognized and supported by esteemed institutions such as the Chanel Writer’s Network, Princess Grace Foundation, SFFILM Rainin Grant, Berlinale Talents, and NYSCA/NYFA, to name a few. Alongside her artistic pursuits, she teaches and mentors across West Africa, providing knowledge and skills to aspiring storytellers.