Book Now!

After a sold out London premiere of over 600 seats in 2 screens at the Greenwich Odeon in October. We are pleased to announce an additional screenings of this compelling drama as part of the London African Film Festival in association with Golden Effects and DJMedia Entertainment.

DATE: SATURDAY 5 December 2009 at 10pm
DATE: SUNDAY 6 December 2009 at 8pm

VENUE: The Rich Mix Cinema
35-47 Bethnal Green Rd, London E1 6LA

Tickets: £10

Online Booking: www.richmix.org.uk
Ticket Hotline/Info: 020 76 13 74 98

MEDIA PARTNERS:

SYNOPSIS
The Figurine (Araromire) is a multi-cultural and contemporary feature highlighting essence and efficacy of tradition, friendship, betrayal and love.

It transcends both the ancient and the modern day.
Two buddies and a girl…all down on their luck have their lives changed after one of them discovers “ARAROMIRE”, a mysterious figurine in an abandoned shrine which according to ancient legend bestows seven years of good luck.
But, no one told them about the next seven years…

Sunday 29 November 4pm at Barbican

Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes in 1990 this is a tale of forbidden love, honor, and revenge, a young man begins a secret affair with his ex-fiancee, who is now his father’s wife. The relationship is deemed incestuous by the village, so the young lovers flee, in hopes of living outside the reach of “tilaï”–the law.
‘Only an enormously sophisticated filmmaker could discover such depth in such simplicity’ – The New York Times

Director: Idrissa Ouedraogo
Writer:
Cast:
Country: Switzerland/UK/France/Burkina Faso/Germany
Year: 1990
Runtime: 81 min

Saturday 28 Nov 4pm at Barbican

Winner of the FIRPRESCI Prize 1989 Cannes Film Festival and the Gold Award at the Tokyo Film Festival

Yaaba is the word given to Grandmother in Burkina Faso and this is the name that a young boy chooses to call an old woman he befriends. The old lady is ostracised from the community as she is a witch and through the impartial eyes of the boy the prejudices of the adult world are revealed. Refreshingly natural performances and beautifully cinematography augment this carefully composed portrait of intergenerational connection.

Director: Idrissa Ouedraogo
Writer:
Cast:
Country: Burkina Faso/Switzerland/France
Year: 1989
Runtime: 90 min

Saturday 31 October 9pm at Odeon Cinema (Greenwich) – UK Première

SYNOPSIS
The Figurine (Araromire) is a multi-cultural and contemporary feature highlighting essence and efficacy of tradition, friendship, betrayal and love.

It transcends both the ancient and the modern day.
Two buddies and a girl…all down on their luck have their lives changed after one of them discovers “ARAROMIRE”, a mysterious figurine in an abandoned shrine which according to ancient legend bestows seven years of good luck.
But, no one told them about the next seven years…

~·~

Invitation

Golden Effects and DJMedia in association with the London African Film Festival invites you to the UK premiere of :

VENUE

ODEON Greenwich
Bugsby’s Way, Greenwich, London, SE10 0QJ (Next to Holiday Inn Express)

TIME

Doors open 9pm, Red Carpet & Photo Ops 9.30pm,
Premiere starts 10.30pm prompt

CONFIRMED INVITED GUESTS

Kunle Afolayan, Ramsey Nouah, Funlola Awofiyebi – Raimi, Lola Maja
+ UK based celebrities from the Film & Music industry
+ Media personalities from TV, Magazines & Newspapers.

TICKETS

Standard: £10
Premier: £15.

TICKET OUTLETS

Available from October 13th.

East: Tomi’s Kitchen (Hackney) Tel: 020 8986 6226
East: Bronze Bar (Barking rd, Canning Town) Tel: 020 7511 4252
South East: Tomi’s Kitchen (Deptford) Tel: 020 8694 9352
South East: Presidential (Old Kent rd) Tel: 020 7708 4491 ,
South East: Tasty’s (Woolwich) Tel: 020 8854 2171 ,
West: Mama Calabar (Wembley Park) Tel:020 8902 2277
North West: D’Den (Cricklewood) Tel: 020 8830 5000

24HR TICKET HOTLINES

Tel: 079 56 37 44 73
Tel: 078 59 92 61 00
Tel: 079 32 42 41 75

INFO

Tel: 079 46 81 12 53
WEB: www.figurinemovie.com

AFTER PARTY

Follows immediately @ PLANET NOLLYWOOD with DJ ABASS.
TIME: 10pm – 4.30am
With cast & crew and all invited celebs on 2 Floors of Music.
DJ’s: Shola-B, Whateva & Mc Data

MEDIA PARTNERS

HITV (Sky 204)
Nollywood Movies (Sky 329)
Trumpet Newpapers
Check Out Magazine
Vivacity PR
Masino Magazine
M&M Magazine
Gbedu Magazine

Sunday 29 November 7pm at The University of Westminster

This is a surprise film.

To be announced – We love this film but the work to organise its screening is still in progress.

Set in Mitchell’s Plain one of Cape Town’s slums this intense spectacular social realist drama follows a mother Shirley Adams who struggles to rehabilitate her paralysed son Donovan, a victim of gun violence that left him paralysed from the neck down. Her husband has abandoned her leaving her to give up her work spending all her time caring for her son. With no income to support herself and her son she has resigned to surviving by handouts from her neighbours and by shoplifting occasionally. The power of this narrative lies in the choices, style and characterisation the debutant director Oliver Hermanus deploys in crafting this story. The emphasis is on the use of a hand held camera, which is kept very close to the face or behind the head of the protagonist who as Shirley Adams is excellently played by Denis Newman. Hermaus allows only momentary glimpses of the environment in which Shirley and her son inhabit and that you are in country that is still trying to come to terms with the challenges of race, class poverty and crime. This enables us to keep an unbroken intimacy with what is an insightful, heart warming and outstanding film.

Director: Oliver Hermanus
Writer: Stavros Pamballis, Oliver Hermanus
Cast: Denise Newman, Keenan Arrison
Country: South Africa-USA-UK
Year: 2009
Runtime: 92 min

Sunday 29 November 4.00pm at The Lexi Cinema – Book Now!

This beautifully crafted documentary has the Sea Point Promenade on the Cape Town waterfront as it’s setting. The film observes and explores issues of race, poverty, religion and homelessness in what was once an exclusive white suburb during the apartheid years. There is a mixed vibrancy of colour, sound, sunsets and in the distant horizon you can almost see the Notorious Robben Island where Nelson Mandela spent 27 years of his life. As people of all colours use the public swimming pool, with the Muslim prayers by the beachfront, its ageing citizens reminiscent about its past, relieved that there can still go for their walks as well as to the theatre but concerned about the future of the white man in Africa.
No conclusions are drawn except that Cape Town like the rest of South Africa is a city in transition that is trying to forget its ugly past and perhaps suggesting a possibility of a promising future.

Director: François Verster
Writer: François Verster
Cast:
Country: South Africa
Year: 2008
Runtime: 90 min

To be announced – We love this film but the work to organise its screening is still in progress.

This feel-good offering with plenty of romance to go with the laughs, is a low budget road movie that took 19 days to shoot on a budget of 6m rand (£450,000), yet in less than two months it has become one of South Africa’s most successful films and has enjoyed unprecedented mass appeal since its release in South Africa.

Elvis leaves Johannesburg to pick up his best friend and his best man Tumi in Durban and so begin the race against time to be getting to his wedding. They suffer misadventures along the way to the wedding in Cape Town. Along the way the offer a lift to a heart broken British doctor Rose (played by Huddersfield born actress Jodie Walker) who had fled the altar after discovering her fiancée had been unfaithful to her. In Cape Town the beautiful Ayunda (Zandile Msutwana) is anxiously awaiting their arrival as well as having to deal with her mother’s wish for a traditional wedding and the unwanted attention of Tony the township boy turned flashy entrepreneur.

Director: Jann Turner
Writers: Jann Turner, Kenneth Nkosi, Rapulana Seiphemo
Cast: Rapulana Seiphemo, Kenneth Nkosi
Country: South Africa
Year: 2008
Runtime: 93 min

To be announced – We love this film but the work to organise its screening is still in progress.

Set in Durban South Africa and based on the experiences of the city’s Homeless children, My Secret Sky follows the story of ten-year-old Thembi and her eight-year-old brother Khwezi. They decide to journey to the city of Durban from their village with their only possession of a traditional Zulu mat made by their mother for a craft competition. Their mother had woven the mat in the hope of entering a competition encouraged by a white priest who had visited the village. But when they arrive in the big city they are confronted with a gang of street kids led by 12-year-old Chilli Bites. Chilli Bites befriends them and tells them of a friend who knows the priest. The friend who turns out to be a pimp whose only intent is to sell Thembi to people with the pervasive myth that sex with virgin cures AIDS takes them in. The director has coaxed some remarkable performances from his young cast particularly Sibahle Mkhabase who gives a raw and delicate quality to the film as ten year old Thembi.

Director: Madoda Ncayiyana
Writers: Julie Frederiske, Madoda Ncayiyana
Cast: Sobahle Mkhabase, Sibonelo Malinga
Country: South Africa
Year: 2008
Runtime:

Saturday 28 November 4.00pm at The Lexi Cinema – UK Première – Book Now!

This award winning drama is a South African Romeo and Juliet tale, GUGU AND ANDILE is a love-story set against the backdrop of the war that raged through South Africa’s townships in the early 1990s. It tells the tale of two star-crossed lovers, unlucky enough to be born into families on opposite sides of the political and cultural divide. Gugu, a sweet and innocent sixteen-year old, comes from a Zulu-speaking family, while Andile, eighteen and equally ready for love, comes from a family steeped in the Xhosa tradition.
Their love is thoroughly disapproved of by the rest of the community. In the prevailing climate it is forbidden for two people from such different backgrounds to form a connection. The war, with its cultural differences and associated political allegiances, encroaches on Gugu and Andile’s lives and, in spite of their resistance, they become deeply embroiled. As in the original Romeo and Juliet, they will both lose loved ones and go through flame and fire for the sake of their love.

Director: Minky Schlesinger
Writer: Lodi Matsetela
Cast: Litha Booi,Lungelo Dhladhla
Country: South Africa
Year: 2008
Runtime: 96 min

Due to unforseen events, this film has been replaced by TILAI   Read more…

Sunday 29 November 4pm at Barbican

Algeria, 2003. The country has recently emerged from a destructive conflict which killed hundreds of thousands and which has left the population traumatised. 28 year-old Goucem shares a hotel room with her mother Papicha, whilst having an affair with a married man. Papicha, a strong-headed and flamboyant former cabaret dancer, still lives in fear of terrorists, and spends most of her days indoors eating pizza and watching romantic soap-operas. Their cheerful neighbour and Goucem’s friend Fifi, is a prostitute. Despite their difficult circumstances, all three women stubbornly strive to live an independent life and find their place in a society dominated by men. A rare glimpse on the marginalised and on Algiers’ underworld.

Director: Nadir Mokneche
Writer:
Cast:
Country: Algeria-France
Year: 2004
Runtime: 113 min

Due to unforseen events, this film has been cancelled   

Sunday 29 November 2.00pm at Barbican – UK Première

A decade before the Western world entered a state of psychosis following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the Algerian people were already suffering in their own land the devastating consequences of the terror inflicted by Islamic fundamentalists. In her first feature, actress turned director Belhadj bravely plunges back into one of the darkest episodes in Algerian history, entering the lives of resilient widow El Batoul and her daughters. A shattering story depicted with courage and perception by both cast and crew, this is one of the most powerful films on the effects of violence, especially on women, to come out of North Africa.

Director: Fatima Belhadj
Writer: Fatima Belhadj
Cast:
Country: Algeria
Year: 2007
Runtime: 100 min

Due to unforseen events, this film has been replaced by YAABA   More info…

Saturday 28 Nov 4pm at Barbican – UK Première

Fawzi, Ramdan and Asma have been friends since childhood. The two men and the woman lead a happy life in the ancient city of Cherchell, west of Algiers, and their relationships are a combination of friendship and romantic love. Their world is shaken and slowly torn apart as they become overwhelmed by events around them: the popular riots of 1988, their suppression, the advent of democracy, and the rise of Islamic fundamentalism. Using archive footage, including the assassination of President Boudiaf in 1992, Hadjadj meticulously re-presents a chronology of events still deeply embedded in every Algerian’s memory. An intelligent examination of both the attraction and rejection of Islamic fundamentalism.

Director: Belkacem Hadjadj
Writer:
Cast:
Country: Algeria
Year: 2005
Runtime: 90 min

To be announced – We love this film but the work to organise its screening is still in progress.

This light-hearted comedy has won numerous awards and has been a favourite with audiences wherever it played. Mounir, an overproud and cocky young man (played wonderfully by actor turned director Lyes Salem), would like to be taken more seriously in the village. This is made all the more difficult by the fact that his beloved younger sister suffers from narcolepsy. One night, frustrated and drunk, he announces to the village that his sister Rym is going to be married to a wealthy foreign businessman. Suddenly, he is being taken seriously…

Director: Lyes Salem
Writer: Lyes Salem
Cast: Lyes Salem , Rym Takoucht , Sarah Reguieg
Country: Algeria-France
Year: 2008
Runtime: 92 min

Thursday 3 Dec 6.30pm at Ciné Lumière – Book Now!

Morocco, 1913. After being kidnapped and made into a slave, Oud Al Ward, a gifted luth player, is sold on to a wealthy musician. A luth player himself, her new master is taken by her rare talent and beauty, and decides to giver her private music lessons. Encouraged to play in public, both her talent and fame flourish. The special treatment she enjoys triggers the anger and jealousy of the master’s wives. At first kind and attentive, he himself slowly becomes obsessed with Oud Al Ward, his own jealousy as well as desire, overtaking his pride at his pupil’s progress with devastating consequences.

Director: Lahcen Zinoun
Writer: Hisham Lasri, Lahcen Zinoun, Ghislaine DeLion
Cast: Mohamed Miftah, Sanaa laoui, Hanane Zouhdi, Touria Jabrane
Country: Morocco
Year: 2007
Runtime: 90 min

Monday 30 Nov 6.30pm at Ciné Lumière

TWO-FOR-ONE TICKET OFFER FOR THIS FILM!

Take advantage of this unique offer to see one of the great classics of Arab and African cinema. Also don’t miss this opportunity to chat with the film’s director Ferid Boughedir!

This offer applies to standard price tickets only purchased at the box office or by phone. This offer is not accessible through the online booking system.

HALFAOUNE is screened on Monday 30 Nov 6.30pm at Ciné Lumière

Call now 020 7073 1350

This film tells the story of a thirteen year old boy’s discovery of his sexual desires. Noura has been growing up in the sheltered and sensual world of women like all boys prior to reaching puberty. His physical awakening is further complicated by his removal from the tender world of women, and his entering of the rigid society of men. Set in the colourful neighbourhood of Halfaouine in the 1970’s and punctuated by humour, this complex adjustment is beautifully and sensitively rendered throughout, with a great performance by Selim Boughedir, the director’s own nephew.

Director: Ferid Boughedir
Writer: Ferid Boughedir
Cast: Selim Boughedir, Mustapha Adouani, Rabia Ben Abdallah
Country: Tunisia
Year: 1990
Runtime: 98 min

Sunday 29 Nov 6.30pm at Ciné Lumière – Book Now!

The young farmer Abdelwahad has been the head of the family since his father’s death. Struggling to feed his seven brothers, and discouraged by the lack of prospects, he becomes attracted by the offer of a relative to go and work in France. Dreaming of a better life abroad, he awaits the document which will allow him to travel. His mother, a grounded woman of strong character, refuses to see her eldest son leave and tries to dissuade him from emigrating. El Maanouni skilfully invites us into the slow unfolding of conflicts caused by traditions as well as emigration. A wonderful and poignant film.

Director: Ahmed El Maanouni
Writer:
Cast:
Country: Morocco
Year: 1978
Runtime: 89 min

Saturday 28 Nov 6.30pm at Ciné Lumière – UK Première – Book Now!

Amal Setta and Hicham Bahloul in Burned Hearts

Amin’s uncle is dying. He returns hurriedly to Fes in the hope of freeing himself from the pain inflicted to him by the man who brought him up. The confrontation between the two is not what Amin expected. Every corner of the city reminds him of his difficult childhood, and the film cleverly interweaves his memories and internal struggles with the lives of those around him. Revealing with subtlety conflicts in contemporary Moroccan’s society, Burned Hearts also features an excellent soundtrack.

Director: Ahmed El Maanouni
Writer: Ahmed El Maanouni
Cast:
Country: Morocco
Year: 2007
Runtime: 84 min

Friday 27 November 4.00pm at Ciné Lumière – Book Now!

The group Nass El Ghiwane was described by Martin Scorsese as the ‘Rolling Stones’ of Africa, and this film, restored by Scorsese’s World Cinema Foundation in 2007, is a rare and enthralling document.

Director: Ahmed El Maanouni
Writer: Ahmed El Maanouni
Cast:
Country: Morocco
Year: 1981 (restored in 2008)
Runtime: 84 min

Thursday  3 December 6.30pm at Rich Mix – UK Première – Book Now!

Winner of the best documentary at the African Movie Academy Awards 2009, the documentary is about the the Galmi purple, the onion from Niger that pervades West African markets with 400,000 tons a year. In Galmi, Salamatou’s been waiting for her wedding for 2 years. Her father Yaro, urged both by her future in-laws and the village gossip makes a decision : «The wedding will take place at the harvest !» Yaro is aware that to be up to his commitment this time, he has to produce more and sell at a higher price …

Director: Sani Elhadj Magori
Writer: Sani Elhadj Magori
Cast:
Country: France-Niger
Year: 2008
Runtime: 52 min

Wednesday 2 December 6.30pm at Rich Mix – Book Now!

Winner of the best film at the Africa Movie Academy Awards 2008, Run Baby Run is a fast-paced and frequently humorous thriller set between London and Accra. Struggling to get by in London, Junior gets a welcome surprise when his pesky little sister visits from Accra. The surprise is that her suitcase has mistakenly been exchanged, and the new suitcase contains a vast amount of cocaine. Junior wastes no time in selling the drugs, and little more in spending a lot of the cash. But when the owners start tracking him down he must flee to Ghana, with his sister and English girlfriend in tow.

Director: Emmanuel Apea
Writer: Emmanuel Apea
Cast:
Country: Ghana
Year: 2008
Runtime: 110 min

Tuesday 1st December 8.30pm at Rich Mix – Book Now!

A young 19 year old rural girl, named Zimbabwe by her patriotic father, is orphaned. Starving and with few choices, she leaves her village in search of a distant aunt. In the remote border town of Beit bridge, she is smuggled across the border into South Africa, in search of any life at all. Illegally in South Africa, Zimbabwe finds work as a domestic worker but is repeatedly abused by her employer. She must commit a violent act to protect herself, and escapes by handing herself over to the authorities. She is repatriated back to Zimbabwe, only to find that her brother has jumped the border to go in search of her.

Director: Darrel Roodt
Writer: Darrel Roodt
Cast: Kudzai Chimbaira, Farai Veremu
Country: Zimbawe-South Africa
Year: 2007
Runtime: 90 min

Monday 30 November 8.30pm at Rich Mix – UK Première – Book Now!

Adera is a heart wrenching story about a young woman Marlan who is an Ethiopian immigrant in the city of Johannesburg, South Africa. She quickly discovers that Johannesburg is not the promised city of gold and struggles to provide for her children back home in Ethiopia. Through a series of twisted circumstances, she ends up as a surrogate mother for a wealthy Ethiopian couple, Tiru and Fre.Their fate is tied up with that of Biru a shady middleman who is central to story’s dramatic turns of love, deception and the human spirit to survive.

Director: Nega Tariku
Writers: Alemayehu Kifle
Cast: Alemayehu Kifle,Rahel Ashenafu
Country: Ethiopia-South Africa
Year: 2008
Runtime: 107 min

Sunday 29 November 6.30pm at Rich Mix – UK Première – Book Now!

This simple and very likeable debut feature is set in central African country of Chad. Majid as a captain of a local club who dreams of dreams of one day of playing in the Nu Camp, home of Barcelona Football Club. The young captain is only a few days away from the town’s championship game when Faiza, the team president’s daughter, catches his eye and that of the coach too. In the wake of his glory on the pitch and his wish to take Faiza’ hand in marriage, Majid makes a decision of grave impact.

Director: Abakar Chene Massa
Writer: Abakar Chene Massa
Cast: Abkar Chene Massar, Naadech Ngaryo,Ousman Adoum
Country: Chad-Canada
Year: 2009
Runtime: 96 min

Sat 28 November 6.15pm at Rich Mix – Book Now!

Winner of the best film at the African Movie Academy Awards 2009, the film is based on the 1998 bombing of U.S. Embassy in Nairobi. Tamani has devoted much of his life to looking for her mother, who disappeared on that day ten years ago. From a Whisper is a powerful and emotional tale of yearning and grief to accept, forgive and understand.

Director: Wanui Kahiu
Writers: Wanui Kahiu
Cast: Ken Ambani,Abubakar Mwenda,Corrine Anyango
Country: Kenya
Year: 2008
Runtime: 110 min

Thu 26 Nov 6.30pm at Ciné Lumière – Book Now!

Set in 1940s Tunisia, Zakia is a sexually frustrated woman who after giving birth was given the seed of the Kochkhach (opium) to calm her nerves. When the opium addicts her, those around her snub her. A moving exploration of the hopes, desires of the upper classes of the time.

Director: Selma Baccar
Writer: Selma Baccar
Cast: Rabiaa Ben Abdallah, Raoul Ben Amour
Country: Tunisia
Year: 2006
Runtime: 100 min

Due to unforseen events, this film has been replaced by MAKING OF   Read more…

Thu 26 Nov 6.30pm at Rich Mix – UK Première

Living almost as a recluse Malek a topographer accepts a job where he works secluded in the region of western Algeria. At the base camp, he discovers a young Chadian woman hiding on her way to Europe. She is exhausted and in constant fear and now wants to return home. Malek shields her from the immigration police after her. He abandons his post and they both take a journey towards a point where they make a decision to go their separate worlds.

Director: Tarik Teguia
Writers: Tarik and Yacine Teguia
Cast: Abdelkadar Affak,
Ines Rose Djakou
Country:Algeria
Year: 2008
Runtime: 140 mins