Cannes Film Festival: African cinema makes its way to the Croisette

With two films in competition, a handful of others scattered across parallel selections and two jury members from the continent, Africa has never been so present at Cannes. An "artistic emulation" carried by a new generation of filmmakers. A second Palme d'Or for this continent usually underrepresented in Cannes and other festivals of 7th art? "The competition is very, very tough," Ramata-Toulaye Sy, the youngest member of the competition, told AFP, without risking further comment.

Born in France - where she grew up - to Senegalese parents, she delivered in Cannes a first feature film imbued with lyricism on the emancipation of a Fulani woman. The other director from the continent in the running for the prize is the Tunisian Kaouther Ben Hania, revealed to the general public thanks to her thriller about a rape victim Beauty and the Pack, presented at Cannes in 2017. Both can succeed the Algerian Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina, Palme d'Or in 1975 with Chronique des années de braise. To date, he is the only African filmmaker to have received the supreme distinction on the Croisette.

See alsoCannes Film Festival: Souleymane Cissé denounces the "contempt" for African cinema

Films "with universal scope

»

Senegal, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Cameroon, Sudan... Films from Africa are in the spotlight. "We are facing the arrival of a new generation, better trained and who has things to say," Kaouther Ben Hania told AFP. "There is a real artistic emulation," adds Moroccan Kamal Lazraq. The Packs, his first feature film that follows the crazy night during which a father and son try to get rid of the body of a man, was presented in the Official Selection, in the category Un certain regard. Last year, his compatriot Maryam Touzani - a member of the jury this year - delivered a sumptuous feature film on the taboo of homosexuality in the Cherifian kingdom. A film that had been presented in the same section.

See alsoBerlinale 2022: African cinema is carving out a place with its committed films

At the Filmmakers' Fortnight, another parallel section of the Festival, the film Deserts by Faouzi Bensaïdi, a kind of contemplative western shot in the Rif, left no one indifferent. "Morocco has been doing a real job of supporting film production for years," says Kamal Lazraq. Ramata-Toulaye Sy echoed the Senegalese government's support for his film. For others, financial and logistical support is not always there, as Kaouther Ben Hania said publicly in 2021.

Can we talk about a breakthrough in African cinema? No, retorts the Malian filmmaker (Carrosse d'or this year) Souleymane Cissé. "African films have always existed but have never been showcased," he says. "African production is rich and varied, it is time to take an interest in it," he continues, denouncing the "contempt" of Westerners. "It's up to distributors to get African films," said Ramata-Toulaye Sy, who teaches cinema in Dakar. "They've always been there, in front of us," she said.

All the filmmakers contacted by AFP say they share the same ambition: to make films rooted in Africa but with "universal scope". Still, the path is often strewn with pitfalls: "In our region, culture is disturbing," says Sudanese Mohamed Kordofani, for whom the shooting of his first feature film Goodbye Julia (presented in the Official Selection) was "very complicated. Filming in an unstable country, where there are demonstrations and riots, is not easy. We are quickly caught up by the reality of our countries.