It is a historic year for African cinema at the 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, showcasing more films and filmmakers associated with Africa than ever before. Previously, the Cannes Film Festival has been said to only support French speaking Africa so it is important to note that a majority of the African films in official competition this year were co-produced and co-financed outside of France. Films with connections to Africa include selections from Tunisia, Senegal, Algeria, Morocco, Sudan, and Cameroon, along with off-screen recognition for legendary Malian writer-director Souleymane Cissé who has been honored with the Carrosse d’Or award for cinematic pioneers.
The 76th festival includes two films from Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania titled Four Daughters and The Man Who Sold His Skin, respectively; Banel & Adama, the debut feature from Senegalese-French filmmaker Ramata-Toulaye Sy‘; and Moroccan films Les Meutes from Kamal Lazraq and the documentary The Mother of All Lies from Asmae El Moudir.
The selection ranges across genres and cinematic styles. Four Daughters is an experimental documentary in which a director, exploring the story of a woman whose two older daughters have disappeared, has professional actresses step in to play their roles. Banel & Adama is an epic, magical realism love story set in a remote village in northern Senegal. Director of Banel & Adama, Ramata-Toulaye Sy felt it important to make a film on Africa that was not about misery, rape, corruption, and whatever else that seems to be how Africa usually is depicted in film. This is not to say that misery and all this trouble does not exists in Africa, but to take a non-naturalistic approach gave the film the kicker it needed for this global display. Going into the film, Sy imagined a great tragic female figure, as there have been depicted in Greek myth, such as Medea or Antigone or Phaedra, but with an African background.
As much as 2023 marks the year where the most African films have been featured by the Cannes Festival, the festival still has a long way to go in terms of featuring work from the continent. For example, a country such as Nigeria, which is the continent’s biggest country by population and has a self-sustaining film industry, has never had a movie picked for Cannes’ official competition. Further than moving from mostly featuring French speaking African countries, the festival needs to cater for the continent’s tens of countries as there are different stories from different parts of the continent that should be showcased at a global festival such as Cannes. African filmmakers who are yet to make it to Cannes note that the films which the festival features could be categorised as “international art house,” a genre with strong appeal in Europe but far less in Africa, another barrier or subtext to keep in mind when looking to showcase one’s film on this global stage.
