The year in movies

As chosen by Wilfred Okiche, The Continent’s film critic.

Khartoum (Sudan)

After the outbreak of war in Sudan, Anas Saeed, Rawia Alhag, Ibrahim Snoopy Ahmed, and Timeea Ahmed join British director Phil Cox to re-enact stories of survival involving five residents of the city. Khartoum is a fine example of filmmaking as therapy – for the filmmakers and participants alike – and of what non-extractive storytelling might look like.

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My Father’s Shadow (Nigeria)

Akinola Davies Jr’s quietly accomplished debut announces the arrival of a major cinematic talent. Mixing myth, memory, folklore and history, My Father’s Shadow’s unique if opaque take on the coming-of-age story has two brothers (Godwin and Chibuike Marvellous Egbo) spend a memorable day in Lagos with their emotionally unavailable father (Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù).

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Happy Birthday (Egypt)

In Sarah Goher’s acerbic feature debut, an eight-year-old maid (Doha Ramadan) has to learn a bitter lesson about social inequality while organising a party for the daughter of her employer. Happy Birthday is shrewdly observational about class conflicts in Egyptian society, but also reflects on the fantasies of childhood, just before they are ripped away.

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The Heart is a Muscle (South Africa)

A child goes missing for a few moments at a friendly gathering. His father is surprised by his own violent reaction to this scare, as is everyone else. Imran Harmdulay’s debut takes its protagonist on a journey of self-discovery while ruminating on masculinity and generational trauma. An interview with the director is coming in the next edition of The Continent.

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The Voice of Hind Rajab (Tunisia)

If there was a film released anywhere this year that seemed to carry the most urgency, then it was The Voice of Hind Rajab, the latest experimental feat by Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania. Her account of the killing of a five-year-old girl by Israeli forces is a furious indictment of a collective culpability that has rendered some lives dispensable.