This year’s Quartiers Lointains will show four films at the Unseen Nairobi followed by a Q&A with the directors during the months of December, January, February and March.
Founded by Claire Diao in 2013, Quartiers Lointains seeks out emerging film talents based in France and Africa to further show and distribute their work to the rest of the world. This year’s ambassador is screenwriter and director Alice Diop.
To celebrate its 10th anniversary the exhibiting films are aimed at bridging distances and revealing commonalities, rather than differences.
The four shorts ask important questions:
- How can we best exist in societies that are both ours and yet other?
- How do we best navigate institutions that are not always equipped to deal with the issues we face?
- How can we find mystical or rational remedies to heal our wounds?
These are questions that traverse the African diasporas. These are transformations that exile. Having to adapt to new cultures, sicknesses, or pain is often minimized and rarely represented on the screen.
Captured in documentary, animation, and fictional short film format, the seventh season shines a light on these physical and psychic metamorphoses.
Unseen Nairobi, will screen a main feature every month, with films from the past seasons of the film festival interspersed in between.
The documentary Red Card is the feature for December with screenings on Dec 1-5, 8-12, and 15-19.
January’s feature is Augure, followed by The Sleeping Negro in February and Xalé in March 2024.
Tickets to the films can be purchased on Unseen Nairobi’s website.
Brief Synopsis of December’s feature
Red Card (Carton Rouge) is a 2020 film by Mohamed Said Ouma. It is set in Comoros, where three female basketball players from the national team and their veteran coach struggle with the lack of infrastructure and the landlocked political and economic situation of this archipelago.
Red Card pays tribute to the resilience of these young Muslim women and an old man who, against all odds, choose to stay in their country and fight every day to build their future there.
On December 8, Red Card’s director, Mohamed Ouma, will be in conversation with Hawa Essuman, followed by an audience Q&A.
Mohamed Ouma is the head of Documentary Africa. This film won the Best Film On Africa prize at the Kenya International Sport Film Festival (2021).
