Tradition and AIDS in Africa. What to do when the respect of tradition is at odds with the community's health?
Social & External
The people behind it
PK, an English orphan terrorized for his family's political beliefs in Africa, turns to his only friend, a kindly world-wise prisoner, Geel Piet. Geel teaches him how to box with the motto “fight with your fists and lead with your heart”. As he grows to manhood, PK uses these words to take on the system and the injustices he sees around him - and finds that one person really can make a difference.
Tony, Pol and Baby are three friends that get together to search a solution to their project for the future, at a standstill. They criticize constantly the system and the other people's precariousness, without realizing that they share the same feeling of poverty.
After a fateful encounter in the summer of 1966, the lifepaths of two brothers from a middle-class Roman family diverge, intersecting with some of the most significant events of postwar Italian history in the following decades.
Tourneur, a self-proclaimed cinéaste, feuds with Cinema and his gang, who are obsessed with foreign action movies.
An African mother will do just about anything to protect her child. Bilaly is a simple peasant who is blind. He wants to “know” a woman before he dies, but try as his mother might, she cannot find someone to oblige. She finally gets an idea – an idea that completely stuns the village.
16-year old Jan is absent-mindedly strolling through the streets when he's run over by roller-skating Nina. As fast as she has stormed into his life, however, she rushes off again. Nina is 15 years old and full of crazy ideas. She lives together with her brother, her father and his new girlfriend. Her mother isn't in touch much. That's why there is the unconventional Angel whose own daughter disappeared years ago and who is Nina's best friend and substitute mother.
Dr. Hind returns from America with her child and her husband's body. She gets raped and spends the night with her former lover Ahmed and confesses to him that she has AIDS and he finds out that the virus has spread to him.
Ali is the image of modern Africa. He happily returns from a football match on his motorbike but a nasty surprise is waiting for him at his parents' home: he finds Haoua, his bride-to-be, waiting for him. The wedding is celebrated shortly afterwards and the two begin living together under the same roof. They are strangers but cannot stand each other. Haoua is the classic traditional woman who has just arrived from the village, God-fearing and faithful to the laws of tradition. Ali's friends advise him to look for a second wife. He meets Henriette, an uninhibited and provocative city girl, the woman of his dreams. To meet Henriette's constant requests, Ali 'borrows' some money from the coffers of commander Soleymane, but he is discovered and ends up in prison. Henriette is furious and leaves him, whilst Haoua cries for him in despair.
The story of Quincy Bosomfield who is the product of colonial education and has risen to become the district commissioner. In the process, he abandons his African heritage and all that has real meaning to him.
A city with its problems. A gang of abandoned children provide for themselves and pose as heroes. The police are on their backs day and night. They are enterprising, energetic, and full of fresh vitality. Despite the fact they are rejected by their parents and ignored by the world, they form among themselves a powerful example of solidarity. Ablakon is something of a different order. He is an adult delinquent and a swindler. Posing as a businessman, he has deceived a countless number of people. When he and his accomplice return to the village, his extravagant behaviour is mistaken for a sign of success. Following his example many young people leave for the city. But they will soon understand their mistake...
Life in the African country of Mali in the 1990s is vividly highlighted in this mild drama. In the story, a young forest ranger who sees that his work holds the key to the future of his country (through reforestation) is disgusted at the short-sighted, money-grubbing ways of his superiors. He has a much better relationship with local villagers than with his agency's bosses. As the movie opens, the villagers are preparing to hold a hunting ceremony but are not sure whether they will do it the old fashioned way, with a bonfire, or will obey a government decree that open fires are too dangerous. There is a lot of sexual teasing between the villagers, including some harmless horseplay. For instance, when a man whispers another woman's name in his sleep, his wife pours water into his ear in revenge.
A young Ivorian man travels to Paris in search of his white wife and their daughter, after she has returned to France. His journey through the city becomes an account of a mixed marriage and the social tensions surrounding it. The film, Désiré Ecaré's feature debut, unfolds as a satirical comedy set to a score by Memphis Slim.
Young Africans in Paris face insecurity and vague future. Should they stay in France, or return to their homes?
After a friend overdoses, Spoon and Stretch decide to kick their drug habits and attempt to enroll in a government detox program. Their efforts are hampered by seemingly endless red tape, as they are shuffled from one office to another while being chased by drug dealers and the police.
Two white Italian actors play Black Rwandans in a fact-based tale set during the Rwanda genocide.
Based on a traditional African tale. A king has the habit whilst walking in disguise on the streets of his kingdom to listen to the wishes of his own people. One day he overhears two brothers daydreaming out loud about marrying the king's daughters, even if that meant being beheaded one year later. The weddings take place and one of the brother is decapitated one year later. The other one escapes execution at his wife's insistence. On a long journey full of surprising incidents, our hero himself becomes king of a village with wives and subjects. However, his earlier promise haunts him, and in order to save his family he accepts to be sacrificed.
A sorcerer (played by the director himself) controls all activities in a village. Manipulating the different parties, the sorcerer promises love, good health and riches in exchange for the most extravagant rewards. One day someone exposes him, and the sorcerer becomes the laughing stock of the whole village. Desperate, he throws himself of a cliff.
A dissolute man whose wife cheats on him seeks revenge to preserve his honor.
Two men of different backgrounds lose their respective jobs, setting off a series of events that brings them together in tragic circumstances.
An African diplomat who has returned to his native country after a long stay in Europe realizes that perhaps he has assimilated too much white culture.
An American couple drift toward emptiness in postwar North Africa.
MMA legend Patton James, now a commercial fisherman, is pulled back into the cage when his brother is in danger. Reuniting with his old coach Sammy, he commits to one final fight in one championship against the brutal champion Xavier Grau.
On her way to visit her childhood home in a colonial outpost in Northern Cameroon, a young French woman recalls her childhood, her memories concentrating on her family's houseboy.
Caught in the stranglehold of debt and structural adjustment, Africa is fighting for its survival. In the face of disaster, representatives of African society bring an action against international financial institutions. The trial takes place in Bamako, in the yard of a house, among its inhabitants.
Erik, a loner, finds a friend in Dexter, an eleven-year-old boy with AIDS. They vow to find a cure for AIDS together and save Dexter's life in an eventful summer.
A mysterious woman comes to compete in a quick-draw elimination tournament, in a town taken over by a notorious gunman.
Clémence, the fearless mayor of a town near Paris, is completing the final term of her political career. With her faithful right-hand man Yazid, she has long fought for this town plagued by inequality, unemployment and slumlords. However, when Clémence is approached to become Minister, her ambition arises, questioning her devotion and commitment to her citizens. Will her political integrity and election promises survive her newly found ambition?
A group of Trappist monks reside in the monastery of Tibhirine in Algeria, where they live in harmony with the largely Muslim population. When a bloody conflict between Algeria's army and Muslim Jihadi insurgents disrupts the peace, they are forced to consider fleeing the monastery and deserting the villagers they have ministered to. In the face of deadly violence, the monks wrestle with their faith and their convictions.
In the midst of a volatile regime change in a Francophone African state, Maria Vial is fighting to sustain her family’s coffee plantation. With rebels and the army struggling for control, French peacekeeping forces move out, warning the remaining white residents that they’re on their own. But Maria refuses to be driven off the land, even as tragedy looms.
The story of golf icon and legend, Bobby Jones, who retired from competition at the tender age of 28.
A woman has a close bond with her beloved Algerian grandfather, who protected her from a toxic home life as a child; his death triggers a deep identity crisis as tensions between her extended family members escalate, revealing new depths of resentment and bitterness.
Pete Bell, a college basketball coach is under a lot of pressure. His team isn't winning and he cannot attract new players. The stars of the future are secretly being paid by boosters. This practice is forbidden in the college game, but Pete is desperate and has pressures from all around.
When a stadium is seized by a group of heavily armed criminals during a major sporting event, an ex-soldier must use all his military skills to save both the daughter of a fallen comrade and the huge crowd unaware of the danger.
An Arab surgeon living in Tel Aviv discovers a dark secret about his wife in the aftermath of a suicide bombing.
Lydia, a midwife very invested in her work, is in the middle of a breakup.
Max Lowe is a Houston surgeon who has grown weary of the bureaucracy of American medicine. When he loses a patient on the operating table, Max impulsively decides to leave America and travel to India in the hope of finding himself. Not long after he arrives in Calcutta, Max is attacked by a group of thugs and left without money or a passport.
After flying home to L.A. for the funeral of his estranged record-producer father, a struggling man discovers that the will stipulates that he must deliver $150,000 in cash to a 30-year-old alcoholic sister he never knew existed, and her troubled 12-year-old son.
A jazz musician seeks refuge from a lynch mob on a remote island, where he meets a hostile game warden and the young object of his attentions.
When Internal Affairs officer Stéphanie investigates a young man severely injured during a chaotic Paris demonstration and finds no police misconduct, the routine case hits close to home upon her discovering the victim is from her native town.
Seven short films - each one focused on the plight of a different child protagonist.
