The Making of Yaaba

The Death Knell

At the beginning of the 1960s, in Salisbury (now Harare), in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), the government of Ian Smith hanged three black revolutionaries who had nevertheless been pardoned by the Queen of England. René Vautier, with ZAPU (Zimbabwe African Party for Unity), denounces this killing. Expelled by the Rhodesian police (informed by the French secret services), the filmmaker shoots a film in Algeria in the form of an indictment against colonial savagery. The film was first banned in France, then authorized in 1965.

Fight in Vain

Paul lives in Africa. He leads an honest and calm existence. Until the day when he finds his friend Frankovich dead.

Hyenas

A now-rich woman returns to her poor desert hometown to propose a deal to the populace: her fortune, in exchange for the death of the man who years earlier abandoned her and left her with his child.

The Little Girl Who Sold the Sun

A young girl with a physical disability arrives in Dakar and challenges the convention of boys selling newspapers on the street.

Touki Bouki

Mory, a cowherd, and Anta, a university student, try to make money in order to go to Paris and leave their boring past behind.

Le Franc

A penniless, fast-thinking musician buys a lottery ticket which he glues to his back door, in hopes of eventually retrieving his instrument from his exasperating landlady. —but the ticket wins...

Contras' City

A fictional documentary that portrays the city of Dakar, Senegal, as we hear the conversation between a Senegalese man (the director, Djibril Diop Mambéty) and a French woman, Inge Hirschnitz. As we travel through the city in a picturesque horse drawn wagon, we chaotically rush into this and that popular neighborhood of the capital, discovering contrast after contrast: A small African community waiting at the Church's door, Muslims praying on the sidewalk, the Rococo architecture of the Government buildings, the modest stores of the craftsmen near the main market.

Badou Boy

Badou Boy, a cheeky young man, travels through the streets of Dakar on the city buses and experiences adventures.

10,000 Years of Cinema

This documentary offers the reflections of filmmakers shot at FESPACO 1991. Djibril Diop Mambéty, David Achkar, Moussa Sene Absa, Mambaye Coulibaly, Idrissa Ouedraogo, Mansour Sora Wade... express their faith in the eternity of African cinema.

Ninki Nanka, The Prince of Colobane

In April and May 1991, Djibril Diop Mambéty shot his second—and final—feature, Hyenas, a free, lyrical adaptation of Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s play The Visit, which he had been dreaming of bringing to life for years. Rather than taking the making-of approach, Ninki Nanka, The Prince of Colobane used the filming of Mambéty’s movie, which he wrote, directed, and acted in, as a pretext to examine his character. Following him throughout the shoot and also paying visits to his family and childhood friends, Laurence Gavron set off on a quest to find the real Djibril—actor, author, filmmaker, brilliant poet, rogue and clairvoyant, charmer with a big heart—in order to expose the different facets of this generous, creative, and fiercely committed vagabond spirit.

Our Planet: Behind the Scenes

Years spent recording footage of creatures from every corner of the globe is bound to produce a bit of drama. Here's a behind-the-scenes look.

Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse

A chronicle of the production problems — including bad weather, actors' health, war near the filming locations, and more — which plagued the filming of Apocalypse Now, increasing costs and nearly destroying the life and career of Francis Ford Coppola.