Fifty

The Movie captures a few pivotal, days in the lives of four Nigeria women at the pinnacle of their careers. Meet Tola, Elizabeth, Maria and Kate four friends forced at midlife to take inventory of their personal lives, while juggling careers and family against the sprawling backdrops of the upper middle-class neighbourhoods of Ikoyi and Victoria Island in Lagos.They live and work in the resurgent, ever-bustling, 24-hour megacity of Lagos, the largest city of Africa's biggest and most vibrant economy. Tola is a reality TV star whose marriage to lawyer Kunle never stood a chance thanks to an invidious family secret. Elizabeth is a celebrated obstetrician whose penchant for younger men has estranged her from her daughter.Forty-nine year-old Maria has an affair with a married man that results in an unexpected pregnancy and Kate's battle with a life-threatening illness has plunged her into religious obsession. In this tender but unflinching exploration of love and lust,power and rivalry,life and loss in twenty-first century Africa's most populous city,and to the pulsating beat of the compelling and entrancing grooves of African Music,we see our four lead characters muster courage,put on their six-inch heels, working hard and partying too, and strut confidently to tackle life's curveballs head-on. Tola, Elizabeth, Maria and Kate rise triumphantly to the challenges of contemporary life faced by women everywhere and remain unbowed.

Hope

On the back of a truck deep in the Sahara desert, a young Nigerian woman and a Cameroonian man attempt a desperate journey to Europe. When title character Hope is singled out by the mostly male fellow travellers – despite her masculine disguise – she’s taken into the desert and raped by a group of soldiers. Only Leonard feels sympathy, and the two form an unlikely bond. In a fiercely hostile world where safety requires staying with one’s own people, they try to find their way together, and to find love amidst the chaos. Director Lojkine’s documentarian eye for detail, striking cinematography and impressive performances from the non-professional leads combine to make this ever more pertinent experience come to life on-screen.

Things of The Aimless Wanderer

Late nineteenth century, a white explorer is lost in the Rwandan jungle. He sets off, trying to locate himself. In the thick rain forest, he encounters a young woman... Early twenty-first century, a foreign news correspondent just met a prostitute in a nightclub. They spend the night together but he mysterious girl disappears the day after. The news correspondent tries to find out what happened to her and eventually finish a travelogue.

Eyes of The Storm

Child Soldiers. Some words simply don’t go together. This gripping, award-winning drama explores the psychological ramifications of this most appalling human rights violation. In an African country ravaged by civil war, a young idealistic lawyer is assigned to defend a rebel accused of war crimes. As the experiences of the former child soldier start to unfold, questions around morality and culpability come to the fore. 

Won 9 awards! 

Out of The Village

"If it takes a village to raise a child, then what happens when it's gone?" This touching film explores the social and cultural impact of the Ebola epidemic from the perspective of an orphaned brother and sister. 

A short film short in just four days, but won 5 awards

A Long Way Gone

A Long Way Gone is the true story of Ishmael Beah, who becomes an unwilling boy soldier during a civil war in Sierra Leone. When he is twelve years old, Beah's village is attacked while he is away performing in a rap group with friends. Among the confusion, violence, and uncertainty of the war, Ishmael, his brother, and his friends wander from village to village in search of food and shelter. Their day-to-day existence is a struggle of survival, and the boys find themselves committing acts they would never have believed themselves capable of, such as stealing food from children.

Eventually, Ishmael is conscripted as a soldier by the army and he becomes the very thing he feared: a killing machine capable of horrible violence. The army becomes his family and he is brainwashed into believing that each rebel death may avenge his own family's slaughter. The boy soldiers become addicted to cocaine, marijuana, and "brown brown," which give them the courage to fight and the ability to repress their emotions in times of war. Ishmael continues to soldier fiercely until his Lieutenant turns the boy soldiers over to UNICEF.

Ishmael is taken to a rehabilitation center, where he struggles to understand his past and to imagine a future. The love and compassion he finds at the center from a nurse named Esther opens up an understanding and forgiveness within himself. Ishmael is welcomed by his extended family in Freetown and is again saved by their support and kindness.

Ishmael is invited along with other children of war to New York City to tell his story to the United Nations. He learns that others like him have suffered and survived. He meets Laura Simms, a storyteller and his future foster mom, and sees the importance of sharing his experience with the world in hopes of preventing such horrors from happening to other children.

After Ishmael returns to Freetown, Sierra Leone, a coup by the RUF and the military ousts the civilian government, and the war Ishmael has been avoiding catches up with him. After his uncle's death, Ishmael flees Sierra Leone for neighboring Guinea and eventually makes his way to his new life in the United States. 

Beasts Of No Nation

Edit

A civil war is breaking out in an unspecified West African country. A young boy, Agu, lives in a small village with his parents, older brother, and two younger siblings. Agu's village is in a "buffer zone" enforced by ECOMOG troops. Agu's father is a local leader, and aids refugees from the surrounding areas by letting them stay on his land.

The village is informed that the government has fallen, with military-aligned rebels seizing control of the country. With rebel forces headed towards the village, many people flee to the country's capital for safety. Agu's father is able to buy safe transport for his wife and youngest child, but has to stay behind himself with Agu and his eldest son. Rebel and government forces fight in and around Agu's village, the rebel soldiers flee and the government forces round up the remaining villagers thinking they are rebels. As they are about to be executed, Agu's father tells his sons to run, just before being shot.

The two boys try to escape, but Agu's brother is killed. Agu evades capture and escapes into the jungle. After wandering for an unspecified amount of time, he is caught up in a guerrilla skirmish. The NDF, a rising rebel faction in the country, adopts Agu into their ranks. Agu's battalion is led by the Commandant, who takes Agu under his wing. After undergoing a brutal initiation process, Agu becomes a fully-fledged member of the militia.

Agu befriends another young NDF child soldier, Strika, who never speaks. One night, the Commandant summons Agu to his quarters, and rapes him. Strika, another of the Commandant's raping victims, comforts him. Preacher, an older soldier, gives Agu brown-brown to lift his mood. Agu and Strika take part in a number of bloody battles and ambushes. The battalion's success in the taking of several towns, killing hundreds of men, women and children, gains them a summons to the rebel HQ, where the Commandant, accompanied by Agu, Strika, and a few other members of the battalion, go to meet with the NDF leader. They spend an entire night in the waiting area, infuriating the Commandant. When they finally meet the Supreme Commander, he informs the Commandant that he is not being promoted, as he had expected, and is in fact being removed from command. The Commandant's lieutenant will take control of the battalion, and the Commandant will be given a staff position under the rebel leader. The Commandant views this as an insult, and leaves to "celebrate" his lieutenant's promotion at a brothel. While the soldiers (except for Agu and Strika) spend the night with the brothel's women, one of them (the women) shoots the lieutenant. The lieutenant is badly wounded and the Commandant accuses the prostitute of trying to kill the Lieutenant. The prostitute pleads with the Commandant and says she shot the lieutenant by accident, but the Commandant and his men shoot the women and leave the city with the battalion.

Now on the run from their own faction, as well as the UN and government forces, the battalion suffers heavy losses. Airstrikes and supply shortages kill many of them, with Strika being killed by a gunshot during an ambush. The remaining members of the battalion take shelter at a gold mine for several months, hoping to find gold to pay for supplies. Ammunition runs out, leaving the group with no way to defend themselves from encroaching enemy forces. Agu informs the Commandant of this, and he tells Agu that he must take care of him, as all sons must protect their fathers. As they speak, Preacher, now the new lieutenant, rallies the soldiers to abandon their posts and surrender to the UN, as they will surely starve or be killed if they stay. The Commandant at first refuses to let them go, but relinquishes when Agu says they should surrender. The soldiers all depart, leaving the raving Commandant alone. Shortly after, they are detained by UN troops. The younger members of the battalion are sent to a missionary school in a safe part of the country. Agu stays away from the other children, who play games and enjoy the comfort and safety of the school. Agu is tormented by what has happened, and has nightmares about it.

After much time has passed, Agu tells the school's counselor that he has done some terrible things but he won't go into detail. He is afraid the counselor will think he is some kind of "beast." Instead he tells how he used to be a good boy, from a good family, and that his family had loved him. The final scene shows Agu finally joining the other boys as they swim and play in the ocean.