Over A Dozen African Films To Be Screened At The 2025 International Film Festival Rotterdam

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The 2025 International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) will feature a selection of films from different African countries, offering a glimpse into the richness of the continent’s cinematic landscape.

Films from the continent include Democratic Republic of Congo’s L’arbre de l’authenticité, Burkina Faso’s Mousso Fariman, Nigeria’s God’s Wife, and Kenya’s Transaction.

Mousso Fariman by Burkinabe duo Drissa Touré and Stephane Mbanga is described as “a story of the contradictions of Burkina Faso’s society and the daily lives of women”. Touré last appeared in Rotterdam 30 years ago with Haramuya. Cape Verdean-Portuguese filmmaker Nuno Boaventura Miranda’s The Last Harvest is “an intergenerational portrait of a Cape Verdean community and diaspora living in Lisbon as they grapple with questions of identity and a shared longing for connection”.

Sammy Baloji’s L’arbre de l’authenticité explores the Democratic Republic of Congo’s colonial history and its ecological significance, highlighting the Congo Basin’s role in consuming carbon dioxide and shaping global environmental balance over a century.

Other highlights

Other highlights include the 1957 state-sponsored documentary on Ghana’s independence, Freedom for Ghana, Kenyan productions Nyamula by Oskar Weimar and Transaction by Wanjeri Gakuru, and Nigerian films God’s Wife by Dika Ofoma and Hadu by Damilola Solesi. Senegal is represented by Ousmane William Mbaye’s Ndar, Saga Waalo, a collaboration with France, as well as Luis Arnías’s Bisagras, a collaboration with Brazil and the USA.

South African filmmakers also make a strong showing, with Karabo Lediga’s Sabbatical, Ryan Kruger’s Street Trash – a collaboration with the USA and Amy Louise Wilson and Francois Knoetze’s The Rock Speaks, another co-production.

Northern Africa make a showing with Egyptian director Hala Elkoussy’s East of Noon, a collaboration with the Netherlands and Qatar, twin brothers Saad and Abdelrahman Dnewar’s My Brother, My Brother, and The Open Door, a 1963 picture by Henry Barakat. Tunisia appears with Amel Guellaty’s Where the Wind Comes From, a collaboration film with France and Qatar.

Full list of African films showing at the 2025 International Film Festival Rotterdam

1. Mousso Fariman by Drissa Touré and Stephane Mbanga (Burkina Faso)
2. The Last Harvest by Nuno Boaventura Miranda (Cape Verde and Portugal)
3. L’arbre de l’authenticité by Sammy Baloji (Democratic Republic of Congo)
4. Freedom for Ghana by Sean Graham (Ghana)
5. Nyamula by Oskar Weimar (Kenya)
6. Transaction by Wanjeri Gakuru (Kenya)
7. God’s Wife by Dika Ofoma (Nigeria)
8. Hadu by Damilola Solesi (Nigeria)
9. Ndar, Saga Waalo by Ousmane William Mbaye (Senegal)
10. Bisagras by Luis Arnías (Senegal, Brazil and USA)
11. Sabbatical by Karabo Lediga (South Africa)
12. Street Trash by Ryan Kruger (South Africa)
13. The Rock Speaks by Amy Louise Wilson and Francois Knoetze (South Africa)
14. East of Noon by Hala Elkoussy (Egypt, Netherlands and Qatar)
15. My Brother, My Brother by Saad Dnewar and Abdelrahman Dnewar (Egypt)
16. The Open Door by Henry Barakat (Egypt)
17. Where the Wind Comes From by Amel Guellaty (Tunisia)