Narratives
ACES
DIRECTED BY NTANDAZO "DIDI" GCINGCA
SOUTH AFRICA / 1999 / ENGLISH / 17 MIN
SYNOPSIS
Aces is the story of a young man who fights against the battering of his mother by his drunken father. The situation escalates until Ace desperately stabs his father to death, and is sent to jail for a period of 15 years. Nine years later he is out on parole. He kills again within a day's time of his release.
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DIRECTOR AND CAST
Director: Ntandazo "Didi" Gcingca
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GENRES
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100% ARABICA
DIRECTED BY MAHMOUD ZEMMOURI
FRANCE and ALGERIA / 1997 / FRENCH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES / 90 MIN
SYNOPSIS
In a housing project located on the outskirts of Paris renamed "100% Arabica" by its inhabitants, African immigrants live side by side. The residents are united by their struggle for recognition in a society where immigrants are often regarded as second class citizens. In a world of exiles, poverty is the common denominator. Against this backdrop, director Zemmouri has brought together two of the biggest and most charismatic stars of the cross-cultural musical form known as Rai, Cheb Mami and Khaled, who play the leaders of a band called Rap Oriental. As the band of musicians starts to gain in popularity, the Imam of the local mosque (Mouss) tries to destroy them by stirring up racial and cultural tensions. However, no one can stop the infectious popularity of the songs in this story of music triumphing over bigotry and violence.
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DIRECTOR AND CAST
Director: Mahmoud Zemmouri
Starring: Cheb Mami
Starring: Khaled
Starring: Mouss
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GENRES |
BONUS
ROTATING SQUARE
DIRECTED BY AHMED HASSOUNA
EGYPT / 2002 / ARABIC WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES / 14 MIN
SYNOPSIS
Sami and his wife Sarah are packing to move to the USA where they intend to open a restaurant. Rania, Sarah's sister, goes to their house to take them to the airport, but some unexpected and unforeseeable events take place in the apartment: games of seduction, murder and dead bodies to be disposed of. A surrealist comedy by Ahmed Hassouna who belongs to a new group of young promising Egyptian filmmakers.
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DIRECTOR AND CAST
Director: Ahmed Hassouna
Starring: Rasha Mahdy
Starring: Bassem Samra
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GENRES
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100 DAYS
"Set in the breathtaking natural beauty of the Rwanda countryside, this fist ever fiction film made about the Rwanda civil war tells a powerful story of genocide and human survival with compassion and integrity. The film centers on a pair of young lovers; Bapiste is more than ready to have sex with his girlfriend Josette, but she refuses, arguing that when they are married they can have all the sex they would like.
Meanwhile, powerful Hutu leaders have had enough of Tutsi rebels and call on all Hutus to kill their Tutsi neighbors. As chaos breaks out, the Tutsis flee and the lovers are separated. Josesette and her family find solace in a Catholic church run by a Hutu priest. The Catholic Church, the state, and the French army look the other way as bloodshed ensues.
When the Belgian army sent in to protect the church is called away on an emergency, the Hutus attack and massacre hundreds of women and children. Josette is saved by the priest who obliges her to become his concubine and repeatedly rapes her. She miraculously survives, but she is only a husk of the woman that she was. As the Tutsis regroup, they exact terrible revenge. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
“It’s the images in 100 Days that graze the soul… There’s nothing anonymous about this nightmare” ~ Wesley Morris, Boston Globe
“Docudrama filmmaking at its finest” ~ Dennis Harvey, Variety
“100 Days succeeds as drama, and succeeds in telling the truth” ~ Mark Doyle, BBC
Rwanda/U.K,2001,96 mins,drama in English, Nick Hughes, dir. This film premiered at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival and at more than 40 international film festivals.