The 2024 edition of the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), which takes place from October 2 to 11, will feature three African films.
The chosen three are Rungano Nyoni’s On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, Mo Harawe’s The Village Next to Paradise, and Mati Diop’s Dahomey. The first two films premiered at the Cannes Film Festival earlier in the year. The last won the Golden Bear award at the Berlin Film Festival.
Nyoni’s On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, a Zambia coproduction, tells the story of Shula, who stumbles across the body of her uncle on an empty road in the middle of the night. As funeral proceedings begin around them, she and her cousins bring to light the buried secrets of their middle-class Zambian family. The film features Susan Chardy, Roy Chisha, and Blessings Bhamjee. It has been acquired by American distribution outfit A24.
The Village Next to Paradise, from a Somalia coproduction, stars Ahmed Ali Farah, Anab Ahmed Ibrahim, and Ahmed Mohamoud Salleban. The story follows the challenges a pair of siblings encounter as they attempt to change their lives in their country. The film’s lead actress, Ibrahim, was named Best Actress at the Sarajevo Film Festival.
Dahomey, by Senegalese-French director Mati Diop, features Gildas Adannou, Morias Agbessi, and Maryline Agbossi. The film covers the return journey of treasures stolen from Dahomey (present day Benin Republic) and taken to the west. Although it deploys fictional elements, the film will be screened in the documentary section of the festival.
The Busan Film Festival is one of Asia’s important film festivals. It was South Korea’s first international film festival. By 2019, it had grown to feature more than 290 projects from 85 countries.
28
