The programme.

Mirriam Phiri · Malawi · 1 min

16 Bars: King of Bawo is a hip-hop musical that follows the life of a female rapper, Lucy Msukwa, as she battles mental health and sexual harassment in the music industry. Lucy, popularly known as Lu, is an up and coming hip-hop artist who sees music as an escape from the abuse she faced in the past which led to a condition called Anti Social Personality Disorder. Lucy’s father, Msukwa, used to take her to play a game of bawo and it is where Lucy meets Gadaga who eventually defiles her. After she grows up, Lucy escapes from home and starts living on her own. She starts taking music seriously but a powerful music executive known as, Lil Money, refuses to sign her unless she sleeps with him. Lil Money signs a male rapper, Fundo, and makes him beef with Lucy in order to end her music career. Lucy is not ready to give up the hip-hop crown for a bully, so she fights to change the narrative.

Fred Eyriey · France, Réunion · 1 min

Gito is a happy man. He lives in Cilaos, a small village perched at an altitude of 1,200 meters in the heart of the mountainous cirque with the eponymous name. He grows lentils and vines and has the best yields in the entire circus because he loves what he does. When his father dies, he will have to manage the inheritance of several hectares of land, creating jealousies in an environment where land is rare. He worries the whole village by evoking the idea of giving land to farmers who would agree to take up organic farming as he and his father practice it. It is a “revolutionary” and poorly understood approach. At the age of fifty, he will also have to “discover” life and its complexity. The friendly trio he forms with his two childhood friends, Hilaire and Ann, will be undermined by the birth of a love triangle between them, not always well lived in this small village in the highland of the island. O Death, old captain, it is time! Let us weigh anchor! This country bores us, O Death! Let us set sail! If the sky and the sea are black as ink, our hearts, which you know, are filled with rays! « Les fleurs du mal » Charles Baudelaire.

Omar Brams Mbaye · Senegal · 1 min

The synopsis "Destin d'un Migrant" (A Migrant's Destiny) is a feature-length documentary that explores migration and the living conditions and journeys of African migrants, whether in regular or irregular situations, as well as political asylum seekers, for various reasons. To better understand the issue and attempt to provide solutions, this documentary gives voice to major international institutions through a series of interviews (European Union, United Nations High Commissioner, France Terre d'Asile Association, IOM, and government institutions working in this field) and to returned migrants and undocumented African migrants living in Europe.

Thomas-Jeffery Seaman · Nigeria

Not Just A Brother tells the remarkable story of an adolescent boy who has become far more than a sibling to his older sister living with disability. Unable to independently navigate menstruation, she relies on the unwavering support, compassion, and dedication of her brother, who stands in the gap with dignity, care, and understanding.

Jesualdo Muvuma · Angola

Follows Tchicolassonhi, a 'Zungueira' (in Angola, the term for female street vendors), in her daily struggle for better conditions for herself and her family. It is an almost endless journey in pursuit of the '50 Kz', one of the lowest-value and most widely circulated coins in Angola (around €0.4), which may mean little to many, but bring color to the life of a Zungueira. Beyond the subjectivity of value, the film delves into themes of grief, resilience, and offers a social critique of the police violence that Zungueiras face every day. The entire film was animated frame by frame in Adobe Photoshop, edited in Davinci Resolve, and is the result of a mixture of digital and traditional art (many of the backgrounds and textures were made with watercolour and oil pastel).

Yehya Mohy Eldien · Egypt

A struggling young man faces possible job loss while living with his mother, as one tense night reveals their emotional distance, past regrets, and unfulfilled lives.

Vennessa Hanshaw, Mark Anthony Deacon · Jamaica

Ren, a twelve-year-old girl, is forced to keep the household together as her mother, Catherine, drowns her sorrows with alcohol after the untimely passing of her husband, Winston, Ren’s father. That unexpected loss changed everything for both mother and daughter as they tried to cope in their own way. Things took a turn for the worse as Catherine now had to take on the role of a single mother, trying to find her way into the workforce, where she had not been in years. Now the real possibility of them being evicted has presented itself. Amidst her frustration, Catherine has verbally and physically abused Ren and resented her for the type of relationship she had with Winston. One morning, after one of Catherine's drunken, abusive outbursts, Ren decides to confront her. During this conflict, Catherine is reminded of memorabilia from her husband and decides to sit and talk with Ren. Ren took the opportunity to speak her mind and pleaded with her to change because she could only do so much; the rest was now up to Catherine.

Soliman Mohamed Hamza · Egypt

The film tells the story of a young man in his twenties who works in a remote field. On his journey, he tries to buy a donkey to help him with the hardship of work, but when he fails, he himself becomes the donkey.

Rabia joy Danladi · Not Specified

Being a Man follows an ordinary man crushed under the silent expectations society places on masculinity. Through his sleepless nights, solitary walks, and the way he watches his son play, the film explores the inner world of a man collapsing unseen. Carried by an intimate voice-over, this short film questions the quiet violence of masculine injunctions: be strong, stay silent, keep moving forward. Always. Until suffocation.

Hazar Abbassi · Tunisia

On the day when songs celebrate her union with her cousin — the man who broke her — Nour searches for a way out behind the veils of silence. A fragile yet furious escape begins, unfolding between the forest and the sea.

Andrew Brow Mayaba · Zambia

CHECK Synopsis A man sits alone in an open field, contemplating the weight of inherited expectations. Through raw internal monologue, he explores the burden of masculine silence the pressure to break invisibly while the world watches. Using chess as metaphor, he reveals how boys become men through damage, how they're crowned kings before understanding the rules. In a moment of clarity, he makes a choice that refuses to pass down a broken system. A haunting meditation on what strength really means when you didn't choose the game and what freedom looks like when you finally decide to rewrite it.

Jesualdo Muvuma · Angola

“Dipanda Dya N’Ngola” (“The Independence of Angola”) is a short animated film that, through a single unmoving frame, traces the symbolic formation of a nation’s “body.” As time passes, a statue (a symbol of Angola's independence) rises where there was once only landscape, before the arrival of Portuguese colonizers. It is not simply built — it is forged in the fire of conflict, shaped by violence, and purified by rain, until it finally stands complete beneath the blue skies of Luanda. The film revisits, in a symbolic manner, Angola’s process of independence, reminding us that Dipanda was not an isolated historical event, but a long and collective journey marked by struggle, loss, resilience, and hope. The statue of Agostinho Neto — poet, revolutionary, and Angola’s first President — emerges as a silent witness to the cost of freedom and the weight of memory. This is a film that commemorates the 50th anniversary of Angola's independence, celebrated in 2025.

AYODEJI SANNI · United Kingdom

Jade, British African found herself at the tail end of a new immigrant policy in the UK that tried to erase her from the system, but she was not alone.

Ayobami Temitope shittu · Nigeria

### **Eid Mubarak – Short Film Summary** **Eid Mubarak** is a reflective cinematic short film told through the eyes of Haleemat, who revisits the sights, sounds, and emotions of Eid from childhood to adulthood. Beginning with the quiet anticipation of Eid morning, the film follows Haleemat as she observes a bustling household preparing for the day, families making their way to the Eid ground, and a community coming together in prayer. Through poetic narration, she reflects on the excitement of waking up on Eid, the beauty of seeing thousands gathered in worship, and the sense of unity that transcends individual struggles. As the day unfolds, the film captures the joy of celebration—hugs, laughter, photographs, and children receiving Eid gifts—before shifting to the deeper meaning of sacrifice, generosity, and sharing through the preparation and distribution of food. By evening, Haleemat reflects on how her understanding of Eid has evolved. What once seemed to be about new clothes, food, and festivities is revealed to be something more profound: togetherness, community, and the rare opportunity for people to reconnect with one another. At its heart, **Eid Mubarak** is a visual essay about faith, memory, belonging, and the enduring power of community. It celebrates not just the traditions of Eid, but the human connections that make the day meaningful.

Mohamed kentaoui · Morocco

Two brothers endure a suffocating isolation one paralyzed, the other torn between sacrifice and burnout. The minutiae of daily life morph into an existential battle against illness, mortality, and the weight of family ties. Tensions mount, culminating in a single moment that changes everything.

Karim Mohamed Mekkawy · Egypt

A lonely, introverted child escapes his apartment during a heated argument between his parents and meets a puppeteer on the building staircase who is on his way to sell his puppet box to pay the rent. The puppeteer decides to give one last performance for the child.

Abdelaziz Elraghy · Egypt

In a dark alley amid the chaos of war, a terrified young man named Kirolos flees from gunfire and explosions, seeking temporary shelter inside an abandoned garage. There, he encounters Abdullah, another young man hiding from the same fate. Despite their different religious backgrounds, the two sit side by side, sharing fear, silence, and what may be the final moments of their lives. Their whispered prayers—blending Christian and Muslim faith—reveal a shared humanity that transcends division. As danger draws closer, their brief conversation turns into a quiet reflection on life, death, and all that remains unlived. But when the sound of a soldier’s footsteps reaches their hiding place, a wedding ring lying on the ground becomes a haunting symbol of everything that can be lost in an instant.

Gabi Bania · United Kingdom

Suzy and Billy are an unhappy middle-aged couple whose affection has long faded away. Suzy feels used by her careless husband, enslaved by the role of a subordinate housewife. She escapes from her worries and loneliness into an addiction of night's gluttony, spending night hours next to the kitchen’s refrigerator. However, one night, her depressing fate is going to change thanks to a visit of two female vampires, who become for her a model of the strong, independent, and emancipated woman she always wanted to be. "Nibbling of the Night" is a women-empowering film and a black comedy with an inspiring moral, which, under a mask of humour, presents a story about the mutual understanding of three women who help each other, creating a female alliance. Although they seem to be the exact opposite of one another, they are united by a common desire for freedom, happiness and living as independent and emancipated. The film also tells the problem of unhappy people who lack the strength to make the necessary changes in their lives and who need the stimulus given to them by others to take control of their fate again. The animation contains numerous references to Gothic literature, and all the characters' dialogues are spoken in rhymes similarly to the Polish stage dramas of the Romantic era. The film was made using the classic stop-motion puppet animation technique. Everything in the animation was hand-made, hand-painted, and hand-animated. This 12-minute long film took over three years of hard work to create.

Jesualdo Muvuma · Angola

Stopped at a traffic light in the streets of Maianga, a neighborhood in Luanda, a man—to the sound of Paulo Flores’s 'Planos'—succumbs to the exhaustion of a grueling life and momentarily detaches from the real world. Inside the car, the music transforms the cabin into a portal to another dimension: his inner universe. Between the rawness of the city and the lightness of a dream, we are taken on a visual journey where he revisits his youth, his fears, lost loves, and unfulfilled plans. A story about memories, freedom and music, merging reality and animation into a single emotional flow.

Loyiso Paul Pududu · South Africa

A 16-year old boy, lamenting his failure to mourn his mother finds the distance between him and his alcoholic father growing wider.

Odaro Eguavoen · Nigeria

After the sudden death of a husband and father, a widow and her three children find themselves at the center of a burial that offers more spectacle than solace. Set against the backdrop of Nigerian tradition, the film quietly observes how communal ritual can deepen the family’s isolation rather than ease their grief. The Noise Around Her Black is a portrait of mourning, exploring how culture’s insistence on outward display can obscure the quiet needs of a family left behind.

Thomas-Jeffery Seaman · Nigeria

Mohamed Anaanaa · Morocco

A secret place inside a public high school embraces students’ freedom and an indirect bond between admirers, serving also as a private passage for the other. Once exposed to the administration, surveillance cameras are installed and everyone abandons it. Later, the walls are repainted and the writings erased, so the memories of the place vanish and its trace dies as if it had never existed.

Yana Bille-Chung · United States

When a kind young couple is offered the chance of a lifetime to purchase their dream house from an ailing octogenarian at a fraction of its asking price, they eagerly accept. However, the deal comes with a significant catch: the older woman must live with them until her death, at which point the house will become theirs.

Youssef Ghariani · Tunisia

During a civil war, a rebel army commander finds himself trapped inside a cave with a soldier from the enemy army — his sworn adversary. The cave is filled with landmines, and any movement could mean instant death. With no escape in sight, they are forced into stillness, waiting for a miracle. Will they find a way out, or is death the only fate that awaits them?

Akua Agyekumwaa · Ghana

UNREAD follows a successful young woman whose polished online life hides a deep emotional struggle. As social media praise, workplace pressure, and emotional isolation close in around her, an unanswered cry for help forces her to confront the painful truth behind perfection, and the silent battles people hide every day.

Chabel Ngoubili · Congo

Torn from childhood to become a soldier, Alain reveals the invisible scars of war and his struggle to find his place in a world that has cast him aside.

Amira Barrett · United States

What Is the Black Body, a 14-minute documentary, is where history, identity, and healing converge. Through compelling imagery and layered storytelling, the film traces the shifting perception of the Black body—from sacred in pre-colonial Africa, to commodified during slavery, to politicized and surveilled in the modern era. But amid the scars of history, a revolution pulses as the Black body is reclaimed not as a battleground, but as a site of beauty, resilience, and rebirth. What Is the Black Body is not just a question—it’s a journey toward wholeness.

Natasha Chirambo, Scott Paton-Levin, Simamkele Mrwetyana, Thabiso Holele · South Africa

'4 Letters’ is an experimental anthology film which weaves the interconnected stories of four Johannesburg youths as they attempt to reconcile old wounds using the form of the epistle.

Youssef EL MAKKAOUI · Morocco

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