1 African Collection
A selection of films I have seen set in Sub-saharan Africa, or about sub-saharan migrants
List activity
805 views
• 0 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
69 titles
- DirectorMichael AptedStarsSigourney WeaverBryan BrownJulie HarrisThe story of Dian Fossey, a scientist who came to Africa to study the vanishing mountain gorillas, and later fought to protect them.
- DirectorAndreas ApostolidisStarsDana Abed
- DirectorRichard AttenboroughStarsDenzel WashingtonKevin KlineJosette SimonSouth African journalist Donald Woods is forced to flee the country after attempting to investigate the death in custody of his friend, the Black anti-Apartheid activist Steve Biko.
- DirectorCarroll BallardStarsAlex MichaeletosCampbell ScottHope DavisAn orphaned cheetah becomes the best friend and pet of a young boy living in South Africa.
- DirectorMariano BarrosoIsabel CoixetJavier CorcueraStarsLia ChapmanLuz-Neida PerdomoIsabelle StoffelA series of short films examining the world's overlooked problems and the people who suffer from them.
- DirectorCompton BennettAndrew MartonStarsDeborah KerrStewart GrangerRichard CarlsonAdventurer Allan Quartermain leads an expedition into uncharted African territory in an attempt to locate an explorer who went missing during his search for the fabled diamond mines of King Solomon.
- DirectorMalik BendjelloulStarsRodriguezStephen 'Sugar' SegermanDennis CoffeyTwo South Africans set out to discover what happened to their unlikely musical hero, the mysterious 1970s rock n roller, Rodriguez.
- DirectorRachid BoucharebStarsBrenda BlethynSotigui KouyatéSami BouajilaTwo strangers come to discover the fate of their respective children in the 2005 terrorist attacks on London.
- DirectorJustin ChadwickStarsIdris ElbaNaomie HarrisTerry PhetoA chronicle of Nelson Mandela's life journey from his childhood in a rural village through to his inauguration as the first democratically elected president of South Africa.
- DirectorJustin ChadwickStarsNaomie HarrisOliver LitondoTony KgorogeThe story of an 84 year-old Kenyan villager and ex Mau Mau veteran who fights for his right to go to school for the first time to get the education he could never afford.
- DirectorClaire DenisStarsIsabelle HuppertChristopher LambertIsaach De BankoléAmidst turmoil and racial conflict in a Francophone African state, a white French woman fights for her coffee crop, her family and ultimately for her life.
- DirectorBreck EisnerStarsMatthew McConaugheyPenélope CruzSteve ZahnMaster explorer Dirk Pitt goes on the adventure of a lifetime of seeking out a lost Civil War battleship known as the "Ship of Death" in the deserts of West Africa while helping a WHO doctor being hounded by a ruthless dictator.
- DirectorPhilippe FalardeauStarsReese WitherspoonArnold OcengGer DuanyA group of Sudanese refugees, given the chance to resettle in the U.S., arrive in Kansas City, Missouri, where their encounter with an employment agency counselor forever changes all of their lives.
- DirectorAlastair FothergillMark LinfieldStarsTim AllenMeet adorable young chimp Oscar and his fellow mayhem-creating buddies, who see the world as their playground. Full of curiosity, joy and a love for mimicking others, these are some of the most extraordinary personalities in the jungle.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsClark GableGrace KellyAva GardnerOn a Kenyan safari, white hunter Victor Marswell has a love triangle with seductive American socialite Eloise Kelly and anthropologist Donald Nordley's cheating wife Linda.
- DirectorTerry GeorgeStarsDon CheadleSophie OkonedoJoaquin PhoenixPaul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager, houses over a thousand Tutsi refugees during their struggle against the Hutu militia in Rwanda, Africa.
- DirectorDavid 'Tosh' GitongaStarsJoseph WairimuOlwenya MainaShix KapyengaA young, aspiring actor from upcountry Kenya dreams of becoming a success in the big city. In pursuit of this and to the chagrin of his brother and parents, he makes his way to Nairobi:the city of opportunity.
- DirectorMiguel GomesStarsTelmo ChurroMiguel GomesHortêncílio AquinaA restless retired woman teams up with her deceased neighbor's maid to seek out a man who has a secret connection to her past life as a farm owner at the foothill of Mount Tabu in Africa.
- DirectorSteph GreenStarsOlutunji Ebun-ColeSimon O'DriscollFionn O'SheaCaptures the experience of being the new kid in school through the eyes of Joseph, a nine year-old African boy.
- DirectorPaul GreengrassStarsTom HanksBarkhad AbdiBarkhad AbdirahmanThe true story of Captain Richard Phillips and the 2009 hijacking by Somali pirates of the U.S.-flagged MV Maersk Alabama, the first American cargo ship to be hijacked in two hundred years.
- DirectorHoward HawksStarsJohn WayneElsa MartinelliHardy KrügerA group of men trap wild animals in Africa and sell them to zoos before the arrival of a female wildlife photographer threatens to change their ways.
- DirectorJames HillTom McGowanStarsVirginia McKennaBill TraversGeoffrey KeenThe story of George and Joy Adamson and the orphaned lion cub, Elsa, they adopt.
- DirectorCutter HodierneStarsAbdikani MuktarAbu Bakr MirreAli Daudi OsmanPirates in Somalia, from the perspective of the pirates.
- DirectorSherry HormannStarsSoraya Omar-ScegoIdriss Abdillahi HoufanehAwa Saïd DararWaris Dirie, born 1965 in Somalia, flees at thirteen when sold to be a mans fourth wife. She works as a maid at the Somalian embassy in London, then in a McDonald's where she's discovered and becomes an international top model. Then, in 1997 she speaks up against female genital mutilation.
- DirectorHermine HuntgeburthStarsNina HossJacky IdoKatja FlintA girl leaves her boyfriend to stay with a Masai man she meets on vacation in Kenya. She adapts to the tribe's customs, foods and gender roles as she integrates into her new community.
- DirectorJohn HustonStarsHumphrey BogartKatharine HepburnRobert MorleyIn WWI East Africa, a gin-swilling Canadian riverboat captain is persuaded by a strait-laced English missionary to undertake a trip up a treacherous river and use his boat to attack a German gunship.
- DirectorHugh HudsonStarsKim BasingerVincent PerezLiam AikenA bored Italian socialite (Kim Basinger) abandons her jet-set lifestyle for the rigors and rewards of rural Kenya in this true story, based on the best-selling memoir by Kuki Gallmann. Directed by Hugh Hudson (Chariots of Fire).
- DirectorHugh HudsonStarsChristopher LambertAndie MacDowellRalph RichardsonA missing heir of respected Scottish family, raised in African jungles by animals, finally returns to his estate only to realize that difference between the two worlds is really significant.
- DirectorCaroline KamyaStarsPhilip BuyiRehema NanfukaStephen OcenOne day in the life of three people, a 12 year old former child soldier, a hip hop dancer and a maid taking us from the city of Kampala, Uganda to northern Uganda post-war.
- DirectorLorenz KnauerStarsAngelina JoliePierce BrosnanJane GoodallMore than 20 years ago, Dr. Jane Goodall, now 75, decided to give up her career as a primatologist, as well as her private life, in order to devote all her energy to saving our endangered planet. Since then she's been spending 300 days a year scouring the globe on her mission to spread hope for future generations. She has taken on the responsibilities of a UN Messenger of Peace, and has been honored with countless awards. In Jane's Journey, we accompany her on her travels across several continents, and receive unprecedented access to her intense and exciting past. From her childhood home in Bournemouth, England, we embark to Gombe National Park on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, in Tanzania, her second home. It's where she began her groundbreaking research nearly half a century ago, and she still returns every year to enjoy the company of the chimpanzees that made her the internationally recognized activist so loved and deeply respected.This documentary offers an intimate portrait of the private person behind the world-famous icon, possibly the most fascinating woman of our time, whose scientific breakthroughs are considered to be among the most important of the past 100 years.
- DirectorUlrich KöhlerStarsPierre BokmaJean-Christophe FollyJenny SchilyA German doctor (Pierre Bokma) battling Sleeping Sickness in rural Cameroon fears that he will be a stranger in his own country as the end of his post draws near, and he prepares to move back home with his wistful wife, and their teenage daughter.
- DirectorCaroline LinkStarsJuliane KöhlerMerab NinidzeMatthias HabichDue to Hitler's threat, Walter Redlich, a Jewish lawyer, immigrates to Kenya with his wife Jettel and daughter Regina. Things take a turn when the family is ordered to move by the British officers.
- DirectorTobias LindholmStarsPilou AsbækSøren MallingDar SalimThe crew of a Danish cargo ship is hijacked by Somali pirates who proceed to engage in escalating negotiations with authorities in Copenhagen.
- DirectorKevin MacdonaldStarsJames McAvoyForest WhitakerGillian AndersonBased on the events of the brutal Ugandan dictator Idi Amin's regime as seen by his personal physician during the 1970s.
- DirectorFrank MarshallStarsLaura LinneyTim CurryDylan WalshWhen an expedition to the African Congo ends in disaster, a new team is assembled to find out what went wrong.
- DirectorHenry MasonStarsDerek de LintBelinda Stewart-WilsonAndrew SimpsonA young idealistic Irishman, Simon who is traveling across Africa to reach his girlfriend, Jennifer hitches a ride with a warring European couple, Kate and Casper. The crossfire could be deadly.
- DirectorFernando MeirellesStarsRalph FiennesRachel WeiszDanny HustonA widower's transcontinental quest to find answers about his wife's death leads him to explosive secrets.
- DirectorFanta Régina NacroStarsMoussa CisséGeorgette ParéAdama OuédraogoLa Nuit de la Vérité is situated in an imaginary West African country. After ten years of civil war between the government army of the Nayak, led by 'Le président', and the Bonande rebels led by Colonel Theo, there is some sign of peace negotiations. But not everyone is in favor of peace and one can feel the tension. The night of truth starts with a festive dinner, but the village idiot Tomoto always seems capable of ruining the attempts for peace with violence and provocation.
- DirectorAlan NathansonStarsShelagh HollidayJonathon MorrisMarius WeyersThe plight of the woman and children during the Anglo-Boer War (1899 - 1901) poignantly told. Left defenseless while their men fought a commando war against "the elite" of the British Army. Not gentleman. - looters, rapists, really.
- DirectorOlivier NakacheÉric ToledanoStarsOmar SyCharlotte GainsbourgTahar RahimSenegalese Samba has worked 10 years in France. He's arrested and befriends the woman helping him with legal matters as volunteer after a burnout at work. He's released after being told to leave France. Chemistry?
- DirectorKim NguyenStarsRachel MwanzaAlain Lino Mic Eli BastienSerge KanyindaSomewhere in Sub-Saharan Africa, Komona, a 14-year-old girl, tells her unborn child growing inside her the story of her life since she has been at war. Everything started when she was abducted by the rebel army at the age of 12.
- DirectorMichel OcelotRaymond BurletStarsDoudou Gueye ThiawMaimouna N'DiayeAwa Sene SarrKirikou, an unusual little boy, must search the wisdom of the forbidden mountain in order to save his village from a spell cast by the evil sorceress Karaba
- DirectorMaria Esperança PascoalStarsCatarina AvelarCiomara MoraisCheila LimaTwo teenage girls escape the war in Angola and have to establish a life in Lisbon.
- DirectorSydney PollackStarsNicole KidmanSean PennCatherine KeenerPolitical intrigue and deception unfold inside the United Nations, where a U.S. Secret Service agent is assigned to investigate an interpreter who overhears an assassination plot.
- DirectorSydney PollackStarsMeryl StreepRobert RedfordKlaus Maria BrandauerIn 20th-century colonial Kenya, a Danish baroness/plantation owner has a passionate love affair with a free-spirited big-game hunter.
- DirectorHenk PretoriusStarsEduan van JaarsveldtZethu Dlomo-MphahleleJerry MofokengThe story of the complications that ensue when an Afrikaans man and Zulu girl fall in love, especially when the traditional custom of "lobola", or dowry, makes things even more difficult for them.
- DirectorAlberto RodríguezStarsJimmy RocaManuel MorónVanesa Cabezaillegal African immigrant Patricio is given a suit as thanks for helping a man change his flat tire. The new clothes improve his self-image.
- DirectorHubert SauperStarsElizabeth 'Eliza' Maganga NseseRaphael Tukiko WagaraDimond RemtuliaA documentary on the effect of fishing the Nile perch in Tanzania's Lake Victoria. The predatory fish, which has wiped out the native species, is sold in European supermarkets, while starving Tanzanian families have to make do with the leftovers.
- DirectorRidley ScottStarsJosh HartnettEwan McGregorTom SizemoreThe story of 160 elite U.S. soldiers who dropped into Mogadishu in October 1993 to capture two top lieutenants of a renegade warlord, but found themselves in a desperate battle with a large force of heavily armed Somalis.
- DirectorUlrich SeidlStarsMargarete TieselPeter KazunguInge MauxTeresa, a fifty-year-old Austrian mother, travels to the paradise of the beaches of Kenya, seeking out love from African boys. But she must confront the hard truth that on the beaches of Kenya, love is a business.
- DirectorOusmane SembeneStarsFatoumata CoulibalyMaimouna Hélène DiarraSalimata TraoréWhen a woman shelters a group of girls from suffering female genital mutilation, she starts a conflict that tears her village apart.
- DirectorVictor ViyuohStarsMbufung SeikehAnurin NwunembomNorbert KechaNinah is a runaway wife whose husband finds out she is pregnant and he comes to recover the dowry he paid or take home the woman he owns. By any means necessary.
- DirectorJan ZabeilStarsAlexander FehlingObusentswe Dreamar ManyimNx'apa MotswaiA drama centered on a white man lost in the Botswana marshlands.
- DirectorEdward ZwickStarsLeonardo DiCaprioDjimon HounsouJennifer ConnellyA fisherman, a smuggler, and a syndicate of businessmen match wits over the possession of a priceless diamond.
- DirectorZeresenay MehariStarsMeron GetnetTizita HagereAbel AbebeA young lawyer travels to an Ethiopian village to represent Hirut, a 14-year-old girl who shot her would-be husband as he and others were practicing one of the nation's oldest traditions: abduction into marriage.
- DirectorGavin HoodStarsHelen MirrenAaron PaulAlan RickmanCol. Katherine Powell, a military officer in command of an operation to capture terrorists in Kenya, sees her mission escalate when a girl enters the kill zone triggering an international dispute over the implications of modern warfare.
- DirectorTakashi MiikeStarsTakao OsawaSatomi IshiharaYôko MakiThe story of Dr. Koichiro, who moves from Japan to Kenya to volunteer as a doctor for child soldiers.
- DirectorRichie SmythStarsJamie DornanEmmanuelle SeignerMark StrongIrish Commandant Pat Quinlan leads a stand off with troops against French and Belgian Mercenaries in the Congo during the early 1960s.
- DirectorBryan BuckleyStarsAl PacinoEvan PetersMelanie GriffithIn 2008, rookie journalist Jay Bahadur forms a half-baked plan to embed himself with the pirates of Somalia. He ultimately succeeds in providing the first close-up look into who these men are, how they live, and the forces that drive them.
- DirectorJohn TrengoveStarsNakhaneBongile MantsaiNiza JayXolani, a lonely factory worker, travels to the rural mountains with the men of his community to initiate a group of teenage boys into manhood.
- DirectorMati DiopStarsMame Bineta SaneAmadou MbowTraoreIn a popular suburb of Dakar, workers on the construction site of a futuristic tower, without pay for months, decide to leave the country by the ocean for a better future. Among them is Souleiman, the lover of Ada, promised to another.
- DirectorSalvador CalvoStarsLuis TosarÁlvaro CervantesAnna CastilloThree people, three stories, one thing in common: Africa.
- DirectorPedro CostaStarsVitalina VarelaVenturaManuel Tavares AlmeidaA Cape Verdean woman navigates her way through Lisbon, following the scanty physical traces her deceased husband left behind and discovering his secret, illicit life.
- DirectorHenry KingRoy Ward BakerStarsGregory PeckSusan HaywardAva GardnerWriter Harry Street reflects on his life as he lies dying from an infection while on safari in the shadow of Mount Kilamanjaro.
- DirectorJohn HustonStarsErrol FlynnJuliette GrécoTrevor HowardIn French Equatorial Africa, an idealist ecologist starts a campaign of public awareness to help save the African elephants from extinction.
- DirectorOusmane SembeneStarsMbissine Thérèse DiopAnne-Marie JelinekRobert FontaineA black girl from Senegal becomes a servant in France.
- DirectorDjibril Diop MambétyStarsMagaye NiangMyriam NiangChristoph ColombMory, a cowherd, and Anta, a university student, try to make money in order to go to Paris and leave their boring past behind.
- DirectorAkosua Adoma OwusuMe Broni Ba is a lyrical portrait of hair salons in Kumasi, Ghana. The tangled legacy of European colonialism in Africa is evoked through images of women practicing hair braiding on discarded white baby dolls from the West. The film unfolds through a series of vignettes, set against a child's story of migrating from Ghana to the United States. The film uncovers the meaning behind the Akan term of endearment, me broni ba, which means "my white baby."
- DirectorFernando González MolinaStarsMario CasasAdriana UgarteMacarena GarcíaAfter the death of her father, a young Spanish woman discovers a partial letter. As she searches for the answers, she embarks on a journey that takes her back to Africa, where she unfolds the secrets of her family.