African Odysseys

Palme d'Or nominated film about a former rapper who takes a teaching job at a cultural centre in a working-class neighbourhood in Casablanca.

Welsh-raised, Zambian-born Rungano Nyoni delivers a dazzling debut with this darkly satirical fairy tale about a little girl accused of being a witch.

Kenyan couple Samuel and Alex remain committed to each other despite the danger and hardship facing them in Peter Murimi’s moving documentary portrait.

Julie Dash’s groundbreaking Daughters of the Dust remains urgent and poetic and continues to resonate, inspiring Beyoncé’s iconic visual album Lemonade.

A philosophy professor (Seret Scott) and an artist (Bill Gunn) reach a crisis point in their marriage, in Kathleen Collins’ groundbreaking and timeless masterpiece.

Menelik Shabazz’s pioneering first feature traces the emotional and political growth of a young black couple in Thatcher’s London.

Menelik Shabazz (Burning an Illusion) shines a light on the music genre often dubbed ‘romantic reggae’; a uniquely black British sound that developed in the late 70s and 80s against a backdrop of riots, racial tension and sound systems.

Leading filmmaker Menelik Shabazz (Burning an Illusion) explores intimacy and relationships within Britain’s black community.

Romantic sparks fly between the daughters of two opposing politicians in Wanuri Kahiu’s neon-bright story of forbidden love in Kenya.

Beautifully shot documentary about four members of the 'Sudanese Film Club' who decide to revive an old cinema.

Two sons struggle to make sense of their father’s sudden disappearance in Mahamat-Saleh Haroun's vivid drama.

Bill Gunn’s revolutionary masterpiece about two vampiric lovers received a standing ovation and the Critics’ Choice prize when it screened at Cannes in 1973.

A desperate mother (Marlene Clark) unwittingly awakens a vengeful spirit when she turns to a cult for help in Ray Marsh’s religious horror.

A Black cop struggles with his inner and outer demons in Christopher St John’s experimental debut feature.

The Queen's Silver Jubilee beats to the sounds of Funkadelic, Sylvester and the O'Jays in Isaac Julien’s feature debut.

Campbell X's debut feature is a sexy, young and cool gay romance taking a unique look at a slice of British urban life.

What if an immaculate conception took place in a South London household? Idris Elba stars in a subtle, thought-provoking and original family drama.

Riotous urban comedy adapted from the hit Royal Court play, about a Peckham teen affronted by the arrival of his long-lost Nigerian sibling.

Claire Denis' fully formed debut offers a child’s-eye-view of racial and sexual tension that bubbles with unspoken desires.

Isabelle Huppert plays a plantation owner clinging to her land as civil war creeps ever closer, in Claire Denis' mesmerising rumination on the effects of colonialism.

The cult classic, acknowledged as the catalyst for the popularisation of reggae in the US, sees Jimmy Cliff traversing the underbelly of Jamaican shanty-town life.

Perry Henzell’s long-lost second feature is a love letter to Jamaica, as we follow a filmmaker searching the island for a lost actor.

Academy Award and Palme d'Or-winning adaption of the Orpheus myth, incorporating the music, costume and dance of Brazil’s Rio Festival.

An anarchic 60s comedy that mixes ancient myths, racial burlesque, and urban guerillas into a hallucinatory experience.

Ben, an innocent immigrant from a remote village in Guyana, arrives in Brixton and falls prey to an assortment of streetwise characters in Anthony Simmons' Palme d’Or nominated comic drama.