At this year’s Cannes film festival, there were films from Zambia and Somalia, two countries that don’t usually feature at the international showcase. Both received critical acclaim and Zambia’s On Becoming A Guinea Fowl went further in winning for its director, Rungano Nyoni, an award in the Un Certain Regard section.
In many ways, the two films are very different – Mo Harawe’s The Village Next to Paradise is an unvarnished drama set in Somalia while Nyoni’s film has a smattering of surrealism. But in one respect, both will be familiar to those who get their Africa from western TV news: Guinea Fowl is about abuse, Paradise is about poverty. They are themes unchanged in decades. Africa, once again, is framed by its troubles, its stagnancy.
