Discoveries from Côte d’Ivoire World Cinema

A paleontologist and her husband discover a mother and baby brontosaurus in Africa, and try to protect them from hunters who want to capture them.

Aya, a young Ivorian woman in her early thirties, says no on her wedding day, to everyone’s astonishment. After emigrating to Asia, she works in a tea export shop with Cai, a 45-year-old Chinese man. Aya and Cai fall in love but can their affair survive the turmoil of their past and other people’s prejudices?

French colonists in Africa, several months behind in the news, find themselves at war with their German neighbors. Deciding that they must do their proper duty and fight the Germans, they promptly conscript the local native population. Issuing them boots and rifles, the French attempt to make "proper" soldiers out of the Africans. A young, idealistic French geographer seems to be the only rational person in the town, and he takes over control of the "war" after several bungles on the part of the others.

A quartet of international gay short films, the latest in its popular The Male Gaze collection. These films explore faith and passion. Forgive them, father, for these boys have sinned. Witness how the power of God works in mysterious ways, from sexual tension high up in the Spanish mountains to the castles of medieval France and the gossip-filled side streets of Abidjan in West Africa. Religion can be a man’s prison, but sometimes it can set him free.

Rwanda, 2012. The country is emerging from an era of silence after the 1994 Tutsi genocide, and people's courts are being set up with the aim of bringing justice and reconciliation. Veneranda, a survivor, is convinced of the need for these trials. Despite pressures, she organises discussion sessions between victims and the families of the executioners. Therapy for some, an act of betrayal for others, these testimonial sessions revive and reveal the traumas that each of them try to overcome, in their own way. The wounds of Veneranda's past are exposed again when she learns of her daughter's unexpected pregnancy and the identity of the father. Veneranda has to face her own contradictions and the dark parts of her past.

Young Africans in Paris face insecurity and vague future. Should they stay in France, or return to their homes?

When a wealthy couple hit financial trouble, they hire a marabout (holy man) to perform rituals that will solve their problems. But the marabout creates more chaos than they ever expected.

The chief of an African village, who is called 'Demi Dieu' because after God he is the owner of all the things, already has five wives. But as this is not enough he decides to find himself a sixth wife so that he has one for every day of the week except on Sunday when he uses to relax.

A young, unnamed Ivorian intellectual returns home after a lengthy spell in France. Failing to reconcile his new-found modernist views with his African traditions, and obsessed with his sexual inhibition, the man becomes haunted by the specter of a knife-brandishing woman threatening to shatter any potential relationships with other women.

Suggested by Mama Watta, a legendary water goddess who seduces men into captivity, the film depicts the symbolic encounter of a man and a woman one night on the beach. The two share dreams on the sand but with daylight comes disorientation and death.

In the middle of a drought, Pétanqui - who is responsible for the distribution of food to the population - enjoys a good life, a nice house, lovers and an official car. His son returns from France with a Law degree, and although he does not approve of his father’s lifestyle, he decides to defend him in court when he is accused of embezzlement. His defence becomes a strong attack on civil servants and members of government who take advantage of their situation. After all, his father is the lesser evil of a state of generalized corruption.

Kramoko Kouyate, son of a griot, cannot marry Fanta who is of noble blood. In flashback, the film explains the origin of the problem and shows their attempts to get around it.

At a festival, a chorus of women sing and dance as two stories unfold. In a village, a young women with a jealous husband gives him something to be jealous about when his younger brother visits from the city.

In 2088, several African countries are now under the domination of Grazers, unscrupulous cybercriminals, desperate to achieve their goals. They are at the head of the highest financial institutions and set up scam techniques that are better and better developed, due to an advanced technology but above all thanks to mysticism. Among them, The Great Grazer, the most powerful and the richest is at the head of this new order. Recently appointed a priest by the council of elders, Ekoua, a carefree 19-year-old girl is entrusted with a mission of the highest importance that could upset this new order forever. She must repair a mistake made in the past before it is too late. To do this, Ekoua is called to meet The Great Grazer.

Fred, a single thirty something, manages a cinema. His sister, Maria, wants him to marry, but none of the women she introduces him to seem to his taste. One day, during a screening, he meets young Caramel. They fall in love. But who is she really?

Struggling to make a living in the markets of Abidjan, a group of young delinquents try to find new ways to make a living. But to attain wealth quickly, they risk putting their lives on the line.

Yann Brenner, a wealthy real estate heir falls in love with a struggling young nurse as he battles an illness that gives him less than 12 months to live.

Happy are those who, like Sekou, have had a great journey. A storyteller like his parents, he perfects his apprenticeship on a pilmigrage through West Africa before returning home. The journey puts his vocation to the test and examines the need for this ancient art in modern society. Throughout his odyssey, the ancient legend of Sundiata accompanies and guides him.

The story of Ivory Coast artist, Frédéric Bruly Bouabré, who created four hundred pictograms, based on one-syllable words in his language, Bété, to help people in the Bété community learn to read more quickly.

Ramatoulaye, a 50-year-old teacher, has been married to lawyer Modou Fall for 25 years. The couple is very close and happy. When her husband takes a second wife – her daughter's best friend – a struggle between tradition and modernity begins.

That night, when he accidentally meets Commissioner Djama, Patrice GBOKEDE plunges painfully into a past that he thought was buried forever. Carried by love and thirst for justice, he will face the Commissioner to reveal the truth that he kept secret 30 years earlier.

Ben a tedious teenage nerd try to have his first intimate experience with a beautiful prostitute named Cherry while his parents are away for the weekend. To succeed, he needs instructions from his best friends Jack and Tommy.

A West African pig farmer has a religious vision, wherein he is told that he'll be Magloire the First, a prophet of Christ. He then sets out to rid his local villagers of superstition and instead save them for Jesus.

The Niambwa is a tribe that worships the God Mask at the centre of their society, culture and politics. The Mask is mediator in conflicts and his decision is final. His heavy figure dances accompanied by the whole population. Suddenly the panther-man appears crawling in his strange disguise, sowing the panic. Two opposite figures. The director Roger M'Bala, one of the most important of his country, has decided to film the ancestral costumes of several tribes of Ivory Coast before they disappear completely. Being a member of this community he mingles with the crowd without being noticed, delivering the essence of the celebration.

Among the Senufo people of northern Côte d'Ivoire, the balafon (xylophone with calabash resonators) is an emblematic musical instrument. The music of the balafon is a source of joy while the young men are doing collective work in the fields, at age-group ceremonies, for the poro initiatory society, for the catholic mass and during young people's dance evenings. Musicians and non-musicians, young and old, talk about the different occasions for which this instrument is an indispensable presence marking the rhythms of life for this agricultural people. Traditional balafon music is far from dying out, and its extraordinary vitality and importance are evident in the activities of the younger generations.

An audiovisual poem about life, death, body and nature, totality, loneliness and connectedness.

A parody of a gangster movie. A group of Africans arrange to meet on a beach near Abidjan to organize a hold-up. They are ready to kill and they take an oath, calling on the goddess Mamy Wata as their witness. On the day of the hold-up, everything goes smoothly and the gang get away in a car with the loot. This triggers off a chase with the police and the army

The viewer is brought along on an adventure in the style of a GoPro-travel documentary. Different blocks are merged together; a backstreet in Accra leads to a shore in Sierra Leone, with a soundtrack of Swedish pop music – and behind every corner lies a makeshift gym, a slaughtered hen, or a tailor of fake Dior suits in Guinea-Conakry.

Ymako Teatri, a theatre company based in the Ivory Coast, uses street theatre to question some contemporary West African problems. Their originality consists in using the ‘invisible theatre’ method in order to surprise the public and thus make it react itself to its own problems. This documentary shows how a local theatre company efficiently uses fiction to problematise today’s African reality. This film presents two performances, one criticises the current proliferation of religious sects, the other deals with the awakening of villagers towards AIDS. Ymako, in Bambara, means ‘our concerns’.

Many people died in the village of Ziglo, in western Côte d’Ivoire, during the 2011 civil war. Having waited too long for state justice, Josiane, known as Maman Jo, a native woman who had lost several members of her family, decided to take the village’s destiny into her own hands by creating a space for women to speak out. Spoken Languages: Dioula, French, Guere, Lobi, Moré

Dane, a driver in N’Djamena, hits a nine-year-old pupil walking home from school and takes him to the hospital. When he comes back the next day, he is told that the child has died. He pays a heavy price for his mistake. A few months later, he meets out of fate the boy he thought he killed.

Estelle runs a successful hair salon but is unlucky in love, so her friends decide to hold auditions to find her the perfect man. But the ideal guy might have been under her nose all along.

Ono, a villager in search of new hope at the risk of her live after the assassination of her family by the rebels.

In the 21st century many ancestral beliefs are struggling to survive in a hostile, fast-changing world. In southeast Ivory Coast, some Akan communities still make contact with the spirits through Komians or animistic priests who go into a trance and are possessed by the spirits of the Forest and the Waters. Jean Marie Addiaffi (1941-1999), a writer and intellectual from Ivory Coast, fought to conserve the Akans’ oral literature, myths and legends, and the knowledge and uses of the plants. In the film “Return to the land of souls”, Yéo Douley, a disciple of Jean Marie Addiaffi , will set out on a journey to visit his master’s grave and carry out a ritual libation. On his travel, he will attend the initiation rites of three people chosen by the spirits and witness one of them proclaimed as the new Komian or high animistic priest.

Siaka Diabaté is a musician at Bouaké, the second largest town in the Côte d'Ivoire. Through his mother's family he is Senufo, but through his father's ancestry he considers himself a Mande griot. He is a multi-talented professional musician, and for the local festivals plays five instruments: the Senufo and Maninka balafons, the kora harp, the dundun drum and the electric guitar. This film shows Siaka playing in the group led by Soungalo Coulibaly before his death in 2004, including the use of jembe drums, which we also see being made. Using long continuous shots that give priority to the music and to what Siaka and Soungalo have to say, this documentary introduces the audience to a fascinating world of urban music that incorporates traditional songs and dances by griots.

Orphaned by his mother, a teenage young artist wanders the streets of a suburb of Abidjan until the day he finds traces of his father whom he had lost all hope of finding.

At 6 p.m., in an African capital, two handicapped people approach a parked taxi. They rob the driver and take him hostage. Begins for the disabled, a crazy night of robberies, violence, confusion and dreams.

After accidentally starting a rumor that his brother has died, a hapless man doesn't want to give back the funeral contributions that he's received and ends up planning a wake for someone who is still very much alive.

Armel, Ahmed, Antoine, Ezechiel, Rougeot and Issa are motorcycle cabs at the Ahougnansou train station. Criticized and marginalized, they show organization and solidarity, determined to make their dreams come true.

Two men are lost on a small island. They only have a coconut tree and its nuts to hope to survive. Our two friends then launch into a war to take ownership of the nuts.

Confronted with the prospect of an imminent farewell, two friends reunite on the football field they grew up in.

In "And if God didn't exist", traces the life of a young man with a bright future named Ray. However, the latter's life will change after the death of his parents. Now alone in the world, he is gripped by the demons of the street. Eliminating targets on command, it is through this work as a hitman that he makes a name for himself until an encounter which will once again change the course of this story made of intrigue and suspense.

At the beginning of the 20th century in Jacqueville, near Abidjan in the Côte d'Ivoire, traditional music was forbidden by the missionaries. But the inhabitants' enjoyment of their local festivals proved stronger, and the little town developed its own brass band. This is the story of that brass band, a brass band that isn't at all like a military band. It's a dancing brass band, an African brass band, that accompanies all the big and little moments of life: national festivals, religious ceremonies, funerals, fetes and celebrations, a musical game involving a football, tunes from the famous Mapuka dance, or the experimental use of sacred drums together with the brass band. A lively debate between the musicians, in which a sense of humor is clearly present, as they examine fundamental questions about their tradition and its transformations in the context of the life of people today.

In the Ivory Coast, Ali (Toure) is a poor policeman who struggles to make ends meet for his wife, Awa (Kabore) and three children. Ali is excited and giddy When he learns that the lottery ticket that Awa bought him is a 3,000,000 winner. But after an extended, frantic search he cannot find the ticket anywhere and he starts to neglect his work. As his family and neighbors learn of his good fortune, they start to come to him with their hands out, and Ali is seen as a mark by others who learn of his winnings. When Ali at last finds the ticket, he realizes that he cannot meet everyone's wishes, even with ten Jackpots.