Namibian film 'Under the Hanging Tree' slated for African cinema festival

Festival of African Cinema celebrates 21st edition
Twelve African directors compete in two competitive segments during the festival.
Michael Kayunde
The Namibian film ‘Under the Hanging Tree’ by director Perivi Katjavivi has been selected to be screened at the Festival of African Cinema of Tarifa (FCAT), set to take place in Spain from Friday, 24 May to Saturday, 1 June.

Under the Hanging Tree will be featured in the competitive selection, Long-Sightedness – Feature Films.

Katjavivi will attend both screenings on Sunday, 26 May at the Alameda Theatre and on Monday, 27 at the Sala Antigua Iglesia Santa María, both located in Tarifa, Spain.

FCAT is an annual event dedicated to African cinema, held in the Spanish city of Tarifa and the Moroccan city of Tangier. It showcases a diverse array of African films, including feature films, documentaries and shorts, highlighting the rich storytelling and filmmaking traditions across the African continent. FCAT provides a platform for African filmmakers to present their work to a global audience, promoting cultural exchange and understanding.

Notable competition

According to a press release issued by the Spanish embassy in Namibia, a dozen female directors from the African continent, with origins from either sub-Saharan Africa, the Maghreb or Afro-descendance from different parts of Europe, will compete in Hipermetropía and Africa In Brief, the two official segments of the 21st Tarifa/Tangier African Film Festival.

“For feature-length films, the competitive segment is Hipermetropía, which contains twelve films in this year’s edition, of which exactly half have women behind the camera. This is an unusual figure for a festival that isn’t actually dedicated to exclusively female-directed films,” read the statement.

Highlights among the female directors include: Lina Soualem (French-Algerian), with ‘Bye Bye Tiberias’; Leïla Kilani (Moroccan) with ‘Indivision’; Asmae El Moudir (Moroccan) with ‘The Mother of All Lies’; Rosine Mbakam (Cameroonian) with ‘Mambar Pierrette’; Cyrielle Raingou (Cameroonian) with ‘Le Spectre de Boko Haram’; and Myriam Birara (Rwandan) with ‘The Bride.’

The rest of the directors competing in the Hipermetropía segment of the 21st edition of the festival include: Luck Razanajoana (Madagascan) with ‘Disco Afrika’; Elvis Sabin (Central African Republic) with ‘The Burden’; C. J Obasia (Nigerian) with ‘Mami Wata’; Perivi Katjavivi (Namibia) with ‘Under the Hanging Tree’; Carlos Yuri Ceuninck (from Cape Verde) with ‘Omi Nobo’; and Mohamed Latrèche (Algerian) with ‘Zinet, Algiers, Happiness.’

Regarding the competitive segment for short films, ten films make up the Africa In Brief section, of which six have female directors.

“These directors come from Guadalupe, Rwanda, Comoros Islands as well as France, Belgium and the United Kingdom.”

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Namibian Sun 2024-11-24

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