Page 33 - DIFF PROGRAMME 2024
P. 33
DOCUMENTARIES
COCONUT HEAD GENERATION
Alain Kassanda, France, Nigeria, 2023, 89 min, English, French, Yoruba with English subtitles
22 JULY 17:30 GATEWAY 8 25 JULY 19:00 SUNCOAST 7
Every Thursday, a group of students from the University of Ibadan, the oldest in Nigeria, organizes a film club, transforming a small amphitheatre into a political agora where they refine their vision and develop a critical voice. “Coconut Head Generation,” a scornful expression to designate a stubborn and brainless youth, takes on a whole new meaning when the students turn this stigma around to claim their freedom of thought.
It is August 1971. Soccer teams from England, Argentina, Mexico, France, Denmark, and Italy gather at Mexico City’s Azteca Stadium. The scale of the tournament is monumental: lavish sponsorship, extensive TV coverage, crowds exceeding 100,000 roaring fans create a cauldron of noise, an atmosphere reminiscent of the greatest moments in international soccer history and you have probably never heard about it. Different from any other tournament – all the players are women. This is Copa ‘71, the unofficial Women’s World Cup. Dismissed by the governing body and domestic soccer associations around the world, this event had been sidelined in history. Until now.
November 2021. Twenty-six royal treasures of the Kingdom of Dahomey are about to leave Paris to return to their country of origin, the present-day Republic of Benin. Along with thousands of others, these artifacts were plundered by French colonial troops in 1892. But what attitude will await these ancestors’ homecoming in a country that had to forge ahead in their absence? While the soul of the artifacts is freed, debate rages among students at the University of Abomey-Calavi.
COPA 71
Rachel Ramsay, James Erskine, United Kingdom, 2023, 90 min, English, Spanish, Italian, French with English subtitles
20 JULY 17:00 PAVILION 12 28 JULY 16:30 GATEWAY 9
DAHOMEY
Mati Diop, France, Senegal, Benin, 2024, 67 min, French, Fon, English with English subtitles
19 JULY 20:15 SUNCOAST 7 26 JULY 19:45 GATEWAY 8
45TH DURBAN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 31