GMFF 2021 Official Selection

Feature Films

The Last Shelter

Duration: 85 minutes
Region: Mali, France, South Africa
Language (subtitles): English
Film type: Documentary

Short description: At the gateway to the Sahel stands the Maison du Migrant, like a refuge for those on their way to Europe or on their way back. Here they face their own migration stories. What do we feel, what do we need, when our dreams have been buried in the sand or are waiting to be lived?

 

La Maison Bleue

Duration: 60 minutes
Region: Senegal, Belgium, France
Language (subtitles): French and English
Film type: Documentary

Short description: Through this intimate portrait of Alpha, the director’s childhood friend, The Blue House highlights the problem of the forgotten European migrant camps. Exceptional territories where attempts at  resistance arise, such as those put in place by Alpha in his habitat and artist studio, a place where a poetics of relationship is built to defy the desolation of bodies and the violence of politics. This film is part of an artistic sublimation approach of a man, an artist, a friend, an exiled set in the heart of «La Jungle», a refugee camp in Calais.

Alda & Maria

Duration: 94 minutes
Region: Portugal, Angola
Language (subtitles): French
Film type: Fiction

Short description: At the end of the summer of 1980, Alda and her sister Maria, aged 16 and 17 respectively, arrived in Lisbon to escape the civil war in Angola. Left on their own, they must learn to survive in a foreign city as they approach adult life.

Fati's Choice

Duration: 45 minutes
Region: Ghana
Language (subtitles): English
Film type: Documentary

Short description: A change of perspective on migration to Europe: Returning because she missed her children, Fati finds little understanding in her native Ghanaian village.

Les prières de Delphine

Duration: 89 minutes
Region: Cameroon, Belgium
Language (subtitles): English, French
Film type: Documentary

Short description: This film is the portrait of Delphine, a young Cameroonian girl. Delphine, like others, is part of this generation of young African women crushed by our patriarchal societies and left to this Western sexual colonization as the only means of survival. Through her courage and strength, Delphine exposes these patterns of domination that continue to lock up African women.

Matares

Duration: 90 minutes
Region: Algeria
Language (subtitles): French, Arabic
Film type: Fiction

Short description: Mona, an 8-year-old girl from Côte d'Ivoire, has fled her country to settle with her mother in Tipasa, an Algerian coastal town known for its Roman ruins "Matares". To pay the smuggler who will take her to her father in Italy, Mona sells flowers to tourists. Unfortunately, "Matares" is the preserve of Said, a 10-year-old Algerian who also sells flowers to tourists. A feeling of hatred springs up in the boy's heart and he wages war on this strange girl who talks to flowers and steals his livelihood.

Not Just Football

Duration: 70 minutes
Region: Chad, Sweden, Sudan
Language (subtitles): English, Spanish, Italian
Film type: Documentary

Short description: From genocide to the World Cup, the incredible story of Darfur United. To break the indifference to the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, an enterprising activist must create an all-refugee national football team and compete in the World Cup.

Teghadez Aghadez

Duration: 52 minutes
Region: Niger
Language (subtitles): French and English
Film type: Documentary

Short description:  For twenty years, André made a living organizing the transport of migrants between Agadez, in Niger and Sabha, in Libya. For him, as for a large part of the population of Agadez, the crossing of the Sahara represented a key sector of the economy. But since 2016, and with the financial support of the European Union, Niger has introduced a law cracking down on all economic activity linked to illegal migration. Since then, André has been fighting to continue working illegally, with the abuses that this implies. We follow him through the streets of Agadez and meet different persons who want for a variety of reasons, have decided to leave their country in search of a better life.

Short Films

La forêt de Djibril

Duration: 39 minutes
Region: Burkina Faso
Language (subtitles): English, French, Spanish, Dutch
Film type: Fiction

Short description: Djibril is a young Sahelian shepherd who travels far to find the forest his grandfather has told him so much about. He pays a high price. He is betrayed and mistreated only to realize that this forest no longer exists. But then his father comes to his rescue.

Territoires

Duration: 25 minutes
Region: France
Language (subtitles): English
Film type: Documentary

Short description: The film follows Brahim, an algerian mechanic living in France who dreams to travel to the U.S. with his son. While trying to obtain a French passport, he gets in trouble with the police and has to hide in the Algerian community of Paris. There he begins an identity quest that will lead him.

Les avalés du Grand Bleu

Duration: 26 minutes
Region: Togo
Language (subtitles): French
Film type: Fiction

Short description: Looking forward to the news of a close relative, left by dugout for Europe, Madam Koffi, a teacher, meets her pupil Enam who cries his father.

Sega

Duration: 24 minutes
Region: Senegal
Language (subtitles): French
Film type: Documentary

Short description: Sega, a young man, whose efforts to reach Europe prove unsuccessful. When Sega is thrust back to Dakar, he must confront his family and friends and navigate his disappointment as well

La quête

Duration: 25 minutes
Region: Senegal
Language (subtitles): French
Film type: Animation

Short description: A young unemployed Senegalese man dreams of the European Eldorado and embarks on the path of clandestine migration.
His confrontation with the harsh realities of a hostile world, in the company of other Africans, as well as the meeting of the love of his life, will give him a new vision and perspectives.

Hide

Duration: 24 minutes
Region: Sierra Leone
Language (subtitles): English
Film type: Fiction

Short description: An HIV positive migrant return home from Oman only to face rejection from her mother, whom she stole her money to pay for  a job in Italy, and abused by her friend's brother.

The Lodgers

Duration: 23 minutes
Region: Nigeria
Language (subtitles): English
Film type: Fiction

Short description: A satirical comedy-drama, inspired by real events, about a Nigerian couple who abandon a successful career in Nigeria and migrate to the UK as highly skilled migrants.

Suñu Ekool

Duration: 22 minutes
Region: Switzerland
Language (subtitles): English
Film type: Documentary

Short description: After living in Switzerland for fifteen years, "Bouba" returns to Senegal to help shape the future of his homeland.

Dolapo is fine

Duration: 15 minutes
Region: Nigeria, England
Language (subtitles): English, Spanish, French
Film type: Fiction

Short description: This gratifying and thoughtful portrayal of an ever-hot topic finds a young black girl on the verge of leaving boarding school and encouraged to meet white beauty standards for a job in the City.

2027

Duration: 5 minutes
Region: France
Language (subtitles): English
Film type: Fiction

Short description: In 2027, a disaster made Europe uninhabitable. The balance of power is changing…

I like it here

Duration: 15 minutes
Region: Morocco
Language (subtitles): English
Film type: Fiction

Short description: A third culture Ghanaian-American youth takes the taxi ride of his life in an attempt to catch a flight out of Accra leaving his country, ailing Grandfather, and deep rooted feelings of cultural  displacement behind.

Stay up

Duration: 40 minutes
Region: Mali
Language (subtitles): English
Film type: Documentary

Short description: Mariam is the last child of a polygamous family. She comes from Fana, a town a few kilometres away from the Malian capital. At the age of five, she was sexually abused by a family acquaintance. She fled in the night to meet her half-sister who lived fifteen kilometres from Fana. restaurant owner who hired her as a cleaner. In a restaurant, she met Burkinabé.