Whilst we weren’t able to catch any films in-person at the 30th edition of the Pan African Film Festival, the virtual screenings were almost enough to compensate. Like previous years, the international film slate at PAFF 2022 featured films from countries that other festivals in the U.S. rarely represent. Inspired by Burkina Faso and Africa’s world leading FESPACO film festival, PAFF is the best place to see films from the African diaspora in the U.S. So if you’re looking for films from sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean, and Black directors around the world, you need to add the Pan African Film Festival to your list.
The International Films at PAFF 2022
As per previous years, we focused our coverage on the International films screening at PAFF. The Pan African Film Festival typically offers one of the most diverse film festival slates in the U.S., and this year was no different. 55 countries were featured along with 18 languages, including Papiamento, Swahili, Wolof, and Yoruba. The festival also does it part to foster new talent from around the world with 61 of the feature films coming from first time directors. The only improvement we’d love to see in future editions is equal gender parity in the director’s screened, especially within the international categories. Whilst 40% of the films featured were directed by women, it felt like this was boosted by the U.S. and short films.
Quality-wise, most of the films we saw this year beat the worst films from the 2019 and 2020 editions. Here’s how they ranked.
1. Bantu Mama (Dominican Republic)
Bantu Mama was the most polished movie we saw at this year’s edition. It has art-house production quality, memorable acting and characters, and it tells its story incredibly efficiently (clocking at just 77 minutes long). Plus the soundtrack was on point – sonically representing the meshing cultures in a tribute to their shared African heritage.
Read the full review here.
2. Tug of War (Tanzania)
Like Bantu Mama, Tug of War‘s high production quality and art-house film language has helped it to screen at a few international film festivals already. It sets an anti-colonial romance within the picturesque island of Zanzibar and gives it a lot of Wong Kar-Wai style. World Cinema fans will find plenty to appreciate here.
Read the full review here.
3. The Crossing (Burkina Faso)
We loved the relaxed pacing of The Crossing. There’s rarely a moment where it feels preachy or designed to provoke. Instead, the light comedy and hang-out vibes turn the often traumatic topic of Africa to Europe immigration into an easy and humorous watch.
Read the full review here.
4. Africa & I (Morocco, South Africa)
Africa & I is the perfect viewing experience for anyone who wants (or wanted) to travel across the African continent. Othmane Zolati’s journey from Morocco to South Africa is unique and inspirational even if the narrative structure is fairly unoriginal. He shows you how to travel on a budget whilst deconstructing the tourist misconceptions of Africa.
5. Doutor Gama (Brazil)
Like Bantu Mama, Doutor Gama features another great soundtrack, this time courtesy of Tigana Santana. His voice gives a melancholy calmness to Dr. Gama’s traumatic life. Whilst the biopic is good, it feels a bit short. It jumps from slavery to an established civil rights lawyer in just a flash, when it could have done with covering more of his life in between.
6. Ayinla (Nigeria)
Ayinla‘s plot is a bit undercooked; hitting beats in Ayinla Omowura’s life without piecing them together. However, the music makes up for it, even if the lyrics aren’t always subtitled. For anyone into Nigerian music, or biopic style movies on making it in the music industry, Ayinla is worth a watch. It’s a decent tribute to both Ayinla Omowura and Abeokuta, the colorful city that both the director and the music star share.
Read the full review here.
7. Zepon (Martinique)
If you’re looking for a well made film from Martinique that gives a sample of Martinican culture, watch Zepon. Whilst it falls into some tired World Cinema tropes, there are some brilliant moments in the film that are supported by light humor that carries the film from start to finish.
Read the full review here.
8. Tales of the Accidental City (Kenya)
The Zoom call format of Tales of the Accidental City is a bit limiting, and already feels dated as quarantine restrictions have largely disappeared. However, if you’re simply looking for a quick Kenyan comedy, this film is worth a watch. It playfully makes fun of a few stereotypes of the city, giving the audience a few laughs and a small understanding of Nairobi society.
Read the full review here.
9. With No Land (Ethiopia, Israel)
Israeli history is complicated, as any documentary on its formation and relationship with Palestine and the West can confirm. However, With No Land focuses on an overlooked prejudice – the rejection of the Black Ethiopian Jews into the Israel state despite the Israeli Citizenship Law that grants every Jew in the world the unrestricted right to become an Israeli citizen. However, whilst the topic is interesting and eye-opening, the abundance of talking heads interviewees makes it very dry.
10. Hairareb (Namibia)
Whilst there are some nice shots of the rural/desert landscape, Hairareb failed to live up to the blurb. It’s not about the drought that brought the two main characters together, and it’s not about the newlyweds past lives, or living in rural Namibia. All of the narrative development is sacrificed for the sake of creating domestic melodrama, leaving the film feeling pretty hollow.
Read the full review here.
11. Juwaa (Belgium)
Juwaa is a well produced movie from the African diaspora. However, it’s incredibly bleak. It hits all the genre tropes of misery porn, starting with a traumatic childhood event which destroys the characters later happiness. Whilst there is some sort of resolution at the end, it’s not enough to make up for the depressing time spent watching the rest of the movie.
Visit the Pan African Film Festival 2022 page for all our full reviews from the 30th edition of the festival. Reviews from past editions of PAFF can also be found here: 2020, 2021.
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