FALLEN ANGELS PARADISE (GANNAT AL SHAYATEEN)

$195.00

FALLEN ANGELS PARADISE (GANNAT AL SHAYATEEN)

DIRECTED BY OUSSAMA FAWZI

EGYPT / 1999 / ARABIC WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES / 80 MIN

SYNOPSIS

A homeless man dies of an overdose in a popular Cairo neighborhood. He was once an ideal husband and represented security for his family. Then one day, everything changed. Upon his death his friends from the underworld drag the corpse around for a whole night of madness, drinking and hallucinating situations. A game with death where the dead man becomes more alive than the living and fallen angels live according to their own rules, laws and desires in the chaos of the Egyptian capital. The film is based on a famous short story written by the Brazilian writer Jorge Amado.

DIRECTOR AND CAST

Director: Oussama Fawzi

Starring: Mahmood Hemaidah
Starring: Lebleba

Starring: Caroline Khalil

GENRES

Dramatic Comedy

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THE DESERT ARK

$295.00

THE DESERT ARK

DIRECTED BY MOHAMED CHOUIKH

ALGERIA / 1997 / ARABIC WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES / 90 MIN

SYNOPSIS

Romeo and Juliet in the Algerian desert. Amin and Myriam are secretly in love. Their families are rivals and when their relationship is discovered, conflict is inevitable. In the quiet atmosphere of the palm groves, the two communities have long nurtured the seeds of discord and hatred. The persecution is the first signal of inevitable evil. From inside the cave where they have taken refuge, the two young people hear the cries of a senseless murderous raid. A universal metaphor to denounce the horror of all extremist violence, The Desert Ark is a splendid and terrifying metaphor for a burning contemporary reality.

DIRECTOR AND CAST

Director: Mohamed Chouikh

Starring: Hacen Abdou

Starring: Messaouda Adami

Starring: Shyraz Aliane

GENRES

Epic Drama
Part of 2 DVD set Great African Films Vol 3 with Daratt (Dry Season)

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DRY SEASON / DARATT

$295.00

DRY SEASON / DARATT

DIRECTED BY MAHAMAT-SALEH HAROUN

CHAD / 2006 / FRENCH AND ARABIC WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES / 95 MIN

SYNOPSIS

Chad, 2006. The government has granted amnesty to all war criminals. Atim, 16 years old, is given a revolver by his grandfather so that he may kill the man who killed his father... Atim leaves his village for N’djamena, seeking a man he does not know. He quickly locates him: former war criminal Nassara is now married and settled down as the owner of a small bakery... With the firm intention of killing him, Atim gets closer to Nassara under the guise of looking for work, and is hired as an apprentice baker… Intrigued by Atim's attitude toward him, Nassara takes him under his wing and teaches him the secrets of making bread... Over the weeks, a strange relationship evolves between the two. Despite his disgust, Atim seems to recognise in Nassara the father figure he has always needed, while Nassara sees the teenager as a potential son. One day, he suggests adoption...

DIRECTOR AND CAST

Director: Mahamat-Saleh Haroun

Starring: Ali Barkai

Starring: Youssouf Djaoro

Starring: Aziza Hisseine

GENRES

Drama
Now available in DVD set: Great African Films Vol 3 with The Desert Ark

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THE CATHEDRAL

$195.00

THE CATHEDRAL

DIRECTED BY HARRIKRISNA ANENDEN

MAURITIUS / 2006 / CREOLE WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES / 78 MIN

SYNOPSIS

The Cathedral is a lyrical narration set in the beautiful and unusual setting of Port-Louis, capital of Mauritius. Lina, a young woman in search of her identity interacts daily with friends and family in a carefree happy manner that will be challenged when one day her dancing catches the eye of a photographer... The Cathedrale is based on a sort story by his wife Ananda Devi.

DIRECTOR AND CAST

Director: Harrikrisna Anenden

Starring: Ingrid Blackburn

Starring: Ashwin Anenden

Starring: Gaston Valayden

GENRES

Drama/Comedy

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CAPE VERDE MY LOVE

$245.00

CAPE VERDE MY LOVE

DIRECTED BY ANA LUCIA RAMOS LISBOA

CAPE VERDE / 2007 / CREOLE WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES / 77 MIN

SYNOPSIS

Praïa, Cape verde. Laura, Flavia and Bela are childhood friends. Each leads her own life and they sometimes meet to dance, dine and have fun. But one day the calm rivers of their lives break their banks and become wild torrents: Ricardo, Flavia's husband, rapes his pupil Indira, Laura's 13-year old eldest daughter. A film that takes a critical look at the lives of women in Cape Verde.

DIRECTOR AND CAST

Director: Ana Lucia Ramos Lisboa

Starring: Eric Bridges Twahirwa

Starring: Cleophas Kabasita

Starring: Davis Kagenza

GENRES

Drama

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BOMA-TERVUREN, THE JOURNEY (LE VOYAGE)

$195.00

BOMA-TERVUREN, THE JOURNEY (LE VOYAGE)

DIRECTED BY FRANCIS DUJARDIN

BELGIUM / 1999 / FRENCH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES / 54 MIN

SYNOPSIS

The extraordinary and tragic saga of 267 Congolese, brought to Brussels for the 1897 World's Fair. After some four months of travel towards Belgium, they are exhibited before a million visitors. Subjected to the crushing gaze of the "Whites" and the cold climate, many fell prey to disease and even some lost their lives. The dead were hastily dispatched in a common grave, sparking a fierce debate in Belgian society. The project was overblown, but necessary in the eyes of the first colonizers, who presumed to have tamed the far-flung savages. One hundred years later, Congolese compatriots return to the scene of these events and question the "Whites" of today on the incredible story of that "human zoo". They carry out the ritual of "a return to the earth" by way of reparation for too great a hurt… A film that revisits a century of stereotyped conceptions about the Africans. And running through it, the almost aching question: "How is today different?"

DIRECTOR AND CAST

Director: Frances Dujardin

GENRES

Documentary

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THE BIG BANANA

$245.00

THE BIG BANANA

DIRECTED BY FRANCK BIELEU

CAMEROON / 2011 / FRENCH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES / 85 MIN

SYNOPSIS

Banned in Cameroon, The Big Banana illustrates the poor working conditions in banana plantations and exposes the adverse impact on the people of a corporatocracy government that affords super profits for corporations at the expense of the local population.

The Big Banana outlines land grabbing tactics by company Plantation du Haut Penja (PHP) and the ensuing devastation for communities: poverty, pollution, and sickness from pesticides.

Bieleu, who spent two years filming residents in the remote countryside of Cameroon also features local cooperatives resisting the devastation through business alliances with fair trade organizations. As a result, The Big Banana not only exposes multinational corporations culpability in the land grab of Africa but also makes us reconsider where we get our fruit from.

DIRECTOR AND CAST

Director: Franck Bieleu

GENRES

Documentary

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BEZNESS

$195.00

BEZNESS

DIRECTED BY NOURI BOUZID

TUNISIA / 1992 / ARAB WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES / 100 MIN
Official selection, Cannes 1992

SYNOPSIS

"Bezness" takes place in one of Tunisia's beautiful coastline tourist cities. it tells the contemporary story of a young man trapped between Arab tradition and prostitution. Through this young man who dreams of escape, the Director, Nouri Bouzid, criticizes both the restrictions associated with what he calls "the hypocrisy of Islam" and the European ruling on Arab society.

“In many ways, Bezness is the most provocative of all Bouzid’s films. It is the first Arab film to deal with explicitly gay themes, and to situate male prostitution within the context of forced female seclusion and gender segregation.” ~ Garay Menicucci, Middle East Research and Information Project

DIRECTOR AND CAST

Director: Nouri Bouzid

Starring: Abdellatif Kechiche

Starring: Jacques Penot

Starring: Ghalia Lacroix

GENRES

Drama

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AMILCAR CABRAL

$295.00

DIRECTED BY ANA RAMOS LISBOA

CAPE VERDE AND PORTUGAL / 2001 / PORTUGUESE WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES / 52 MIN

TEASER Amilcar Cabral from Mosaic Producciones on Vimeo.

SYNOPSIS

Amilcar Cabral was the leader of the Liberation Movement of Cape Verde and Guinea Bissau and the founder of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC). He was born in Guinea in 1924 and assassinated in Conakry in 1973. Regarded as a true icon of African history, this documentary provides considerable background to this revolutionary giant and reveals Cabral in several dimensions: as a man, a father, politician, humanist and poet.

The documentary is skillfully produced and uses a wealth of rare archive footage, balanced inclusion of varied testimonies of important African personalities and the credible recreation of notable episodes of Cabral's life.

DIRECTOR AND CAST

Director: Ana Lucia Ramos

Starring: Ana Maria Cabral

Starring: Iva Cabral

GENRES

Historical Documentary

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ALMODOU

$195.00

ALMODOU

DIRECTED BY AMADOU

SENEGAL / 2002 / WOLOF AND FRENCH / 85 MIN

SYNOPSIS

Sometimes distasteful practices are most effectively criticized with a good sense of humor. Meet Modou, a young, courageous and determined talibé - a pupil in a Koranic school - who manages to escape from his corrupt and abusive teacher to find a better life in contemporary Dakar, Senegal.

DIRECTOR AND CAST

Director: Amadou

GENRES

Comedy

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ACES

$145.00

ACES

DIRECTED BY NTANDAZO "DIDI" GCINGCA

SOUTH AFRICA / 1999 / ENGLISH / 17 MIN

SYNOPSIS

Aces is the story of a young man who fights against the battering of his mother by his drunken father. The situation escalates until Ace desperately stabs his father to death, and is sent to jail for a period of 15 years. Nine years later he is out on parole. He kills again within a day's time of his release.

DIRECTOR AND CAST

Director: Ntandazo "Didi" Gcingca

GENRES

Short Drama

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