Minister Beatriz Artolazabal attends the opening of “Afrikaldia”, the Basque Festival of African Cinema, focused on migration, care for the elderly, youth and equality

• Organized by the Manuel Iradier Africanist Association and Bendera Kultura Elkartea
• Screening of “A nuit de rois” (The Night of the Kings), by Philippe Lacôte, at the opening gala

 Vitoria-Gasteiz, 2022 10 03

Afrikaldia, the Basque Festival of African Cinemas, takes place from today in Vitoria-Gasteiz until October 8, focusing especially on migration, equality and the mobility of people from an African perspective. The inaugural Gala held at the Europa Congress Palace with the participation of the Minister for Equality, Justice and Social Policies of the Basque Government, Mrs Beatriz Artolazabal.

 Also, present were Alvaro Iradier, President of the Africanista, Beatriz Leal, programmer of the Contest, and Paul Ortega, Director of Development Cooperation of the Basque Government. This competitive international film competition aimed at all audiences. Florida cinemas will host a dozen screenings that will serve to learn about the reality of Africa through quality cinema.

 Afrikaldia organized by the Manuel Iradier Africanist Association and by Bendera Kultura Elkartea. During the week of the festival, different directors, actors will visit the Araba-Álava Campus to reflect and debate on the political and migratory panorama that African countries are going through.

 Among the films that will be screened in the halls of the Florida Cinemas in the capital of the Basque Country there are several with content linked to Equality, Youth, Migration and Development Cooperation.

• A NUIT DES ROIS (The Night of the Kings), by Philippe Lacôte (Ivory Coast/France/Canada/Senegal, 2020) will open the competition. A small delinquent enters frightened in "La Maca", a prison in the middle of the Ivory Coast forest that is governed by its own rules and where the prisoners are the true rulers. The head of the prison, sick and forced to commit suicide according to internal rules, chooses this inmate as the new storyteller. When the moon turns red, he must begin to tell his story, and when it is over, face his fate. He chooses the story of Zama King, an assassin, an idol for the rest of the inmates. The night advances, the danger is constant, but imagination and creativity overflow.
• 143 RUE DU DÉSERT (Desert Street, 143), by Hassen Ferhani (Algeria / France / Qatar, 2019) tells that, in the middle of the Algerian Sahara, a woman writes her story in her living room. There she welcomes truck drivers, wandering beings and her dreams with a cigarette, a coffee or some eggs... Her name is Malika.
• DANS LA MAISON (In the house), by Karima Saïdi (Belgium / France / Morocco / Qatar, 2020) narrates that, after years of separation, the filmmaker is reunited with her mother, Aïcha, who suffers from Alzheimer's. From Brussels to Tangier, between modesty and confession, pains, ruptures, duels and joys take shape: everything that has marked the odyssey of a family marked by exile.
• FEATHERS (Plumas), by Omar El Zohairy (Egypt/Netherlands/Greece/France, 2021) begins at a children's birthday party, when a magician turns the child's authoritarian father into a chicken. The family's problems will begin when the magician is unable to reverse the transformation. The selfless mother must take charge of the situation to move her family forward in a patriarchal society that will not make things easy for her. As she moves heaven and earth to bring her husband back and ensure her survival, the woman will go through a total transformation.
• FEMMES SUSPENDUES (Suspended Women), by Merième Addou (Morocco/France/Qatar, 2021) describes the struggle of Ghita, Latifa and Saadia, three women abandoned by their husbands. After years of endless waiting, they go to the court in their region to request a divorce. The judicial procedure forces each of them to prove the absence of her husband: an absurd and painful obstacle course that they are not sure they can overcome.
• FREDA, by Gessica Généus, (Haiti / France / Benin, 2021) exposes how Freda lives with her mother, her sister and her younger brother in a popular neighbourhood of Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti. The family survives thanks to a small grocery store. Faced with precariousness and the increase in daily violence, each of them wonders if she should stay or flee the country. Willing to give up her own happiness, Freda decides to believe in the future of her country.
• LE DERNIER REFUGE (The Last Refuge), by Ousmane Samassekou (Mali/France/South Africa, 2021) reflects how, for decades, the city of Gao, in Mali, has been a haven of peace for African travellers. There, at the gates of the Sahel desert, is the Migrations House, which welcomes thousands of people every year: those still full of hope on their way to Europe and those whose luck has changed and are traveling back to their hometown and his family. Two teenage girls and a mature woman, lying in a small room, talk about their dreams and their personal stories. In another part of the house, some young men watch a wrestling match on television, listen to music, play cards and escape from reality. What does it feel like, what does it take, when our dreams have buried in the sand or are waiting to be lived?
• MLUNGU WAM / GOOD MADAM (Good Madam), by Jenna Cato Bass (South Africa, 2021) is a hair-raising psychological thriller about Tsidi, a single mother who is forced to move in with her estranged mother Mavis, a domestic worker who obsessively cares for her his catatonic white 'Madam' and lives in his house. However, as Tsidi attempts to heal her family, the sinister spectre of 'Madam' begins to stir.
• NOUS, STUDENTS! (We, students!), by Rafiki Fariala (Central African Rep./ France/ DRC/ Saudi Arabia, 2022) narrates how Néstor, Aaron, Benjamín and Rafiki are economics students at the University of Bangui. Alternating between the crowded classrooms, the small jobs that allow them to survive and the bribes that lurk everywhere, Rafiki shows what life is like for students in the Central African Republic, a shattered society in which the youth continue to dream of a better future for your country.
• OTITI, by Ema Edosio (Nigeria / USA, 2022) is the story of a seamstress afraid of commitment who takes care of the sick father who abandoned her as a child while her stepbrothers position themselves to take over the properties her.
• RAFIKI, by Wanuri Kahiu (France/Kenya/South Africa, 2018) questions the saying "Good Kenyan girls become good Kenyan wives". However, Kena and Ziki yearn for something more. Kena works at her father's store and waits for nursing school to start, while Ziki spends his days hanging out with her friends and coming up with dance routines. Their paths cross in the middle of an electoral campaign that confronts their respective parents. The girls like each other, but Kenyan society is very conservative, and they will have to choose between love and security.
• THE RUMBA KINGS, by Alan Brain (USA/DRC, 2021) celebrates the epic story of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, an African nation that fought colonial oppression, found freedom and forged a new identity through music.
• UNE HISTOIRE D'AMOUR ET DE DÉSIR (A story of love and desire), by Leyla Bouzid (Tunisia/ France, 2021) tells how Ahmed, 18, French of Algerian origin, grew up on the outskirts of Paris. At University, he meets Farah, a young Tunisian full of energy who has just arrived in Paris. While he discovers a collection of sensual and erotic Arabic literature that he never imagined existed, Ahmed falls madly in love with Farah and although he literally overwhelmed by her desire, he will try to resist it.
• VUTA N'KUVETE (Tug and Tug), by Amil Shivji (Tanzania/ South Africa/Qatar/Germany, 2021) narrates how a young militant revolutionary against British domination, along with his runaway girlfriend, see their romance in Zanzibar affected in the 50s by the harsh waves of colonial repression. This film adaptation of Amil Shafi's Swahili novel of the same name is the first Tanzanian feature film screened at festivals and captures as never before the historical tensions of a time - shortly after the end of the East African slave trade - and a space - Zanzibar. -, nerve centre of this market and essential in the history of the current continent and world.
• WALLAY, by Berni Goldblat (France/Burkina Faso/Qatar, 2017) describes everyday life in Burkina Faso through the eyes of Ady, a 13-year-old boy. He now lives in France, but his father has decided to send him to visit his relatives in West Africa. Excited by the idea of spending a quiet vacation in his father's country of origin, he is surprised when he arrives, when his uncle receives him coldly and reproachfully. The rest of the family is happy to see him and try to temper his uncle's spirits, but it doesn't take long for Ady to realize that his stay is not going to be what he expected.
• YOU WILL DIE AT TWENTY, by Amjad Abu Alala (Sudan/Qatar, 2019): Shortly after birth, a holy man in the village predicts that Muzamil will die on his 20th birthday. Muzamil's father is unable to bear the curse and leaves home. His mother, Sakina, raises the son alone, overprotective. The day comes when Muzamil turns 19.