
Acting
Sotigui Kouyaté
Born 1936-07-19 · Bamako, Mali
An African griot and actor of film and stage who made a name for himself in European productions, Sotigui Kouyaté (19 July 1936 – 17 April 2010) was one of the first Malian, Burkinabé actors. He was a member of the Mandinka ethnic group, and father of film director Dani Kouyaté, of storyteller Hassane Kassi Kouyaté and of actor Mabô Kouyaté.
Acting credits
6.3Inspired by the book of Genesis, this film tells the power struggle between two families: a clan of herders led by Jacob and another clan of hunters fronted by his brother Esau. Caught in the crossfire is their cousin, Hamor and his tribe of farmers.
Genesis
1999
6.9An undocumented immigrant finds a human heart in one of the toilets of the west London hotel where he works with other undocumented immigrants.
Dirty Pretty Things
2002
4.9Regina meets charming Joshua while vacationing in Martinique, as she contemplates ending her whirlwind marriage to enigmatic Charlie. Upon her return to Paris, she finds that both her apartment and her bank account have been emptied, and her husband has been murdered. Stuck in ever-increasing danger and with four men pursuing her, another stranger offers assistance - but who can she trust?
The Truth About Charlie
2002
6.2An African narrator tells the story of earth history, the birth of the universe and evolution of life. Beautiful imagery makes this movie documentary complete.
Genesis
2004
6.7After traveling to London to check on their missing children in the wake of the 2005 terror attacks on the city, two strangers come to discover their respective children had been living together at the time of the attacks
London River
2009
4.0A man. A woman. A single night in Paris. Such is the basic framework of this French romance that begins when middle-aged middle-class housewife Clara, happily drives to the airport to meet her husband who was supposed to come in on the evening flight and is devastated to learn that he has remained at his hotel and is having an affair. Clara sees a younger man eating a sandwich and asks him to have a drink. Later, she and he, an amiable baggage handler, spend the evening talking and exploring the nightlife on the outskirts of Paris. There they meet many people from other countries who come to Paris and work as laborers.
On the Edge
1995
6.6The humanitarian aid expedition "Angeles Azules" (Blue Angels), comprising twelve Europeans and six trucks loaded with provisions to alleviate hunger in Sub-Saharan Africa, advances across the continent. As a result of the difficulties the team encounters, disorganization gradually takes over the convoy. Each of the members of the group, little by little, yield to their petty, selfish impulses: violence, power, nostalgia - The breakdown of one of the trucks forces Michele and Nadia to wait at an oasis for the arrival of spare parts. But a starving local tribe settles threateningly near them. The chief of the tribe makes a speech they don't understand, which is followed by a macabre purification ceremony.
How Good the Whites Are
1988
4.9The marriage of the famous writer Alan and his young wife Lola is in a crisis. On a vacation in Haiti Lola wants to decide if their relationship still has a future...
Descent Into Hell
1986
6.5An American couple drift toward emptiness in postwar North Africa.
The Sheltering Sky
1990
8.0An intimate portrait of director Peter Brook by his son, Simon Brook.
Brook by Brook
2002
5.4When she is slightly hurt in the factory where she works, Iris quits her job and finds a new one as an assistant in a laboratory of a very peculiar kind. Without fully grasping what is at play around her, she gradually engages in a disturbing love affair with her enigmatic employer.
The Ring Finger
2005
10.01968: Justin Ohounou is the Minister of the Interior Department. He is involved in scheming with a corrupt business man. His goal is to eliminate by all means his political enemy Christian Adegbe and all of the Adegbe Tribe.
Mamy Wata
1990
5.7This is a charming and successful farce from director Thomas Gilou, featuring a witty screenplay co-authored by producer Monique Annaud. When a group of African squatters in Paris are threatened with eviction, they find themselves fighting against a bureaucracy that few French citizens understand, let alone immigrants. In desperation, they turn to their best option to resolve this dilemma: they call for a sorcerer from home. The sorcerer hops on a jet to Paris to cast spells on the entrenched bureaucrat, and while en route he strikes up a conversation with a fellow passenger, mentioning his job pays quite well. The interested passenger could stand to make a few extra francs, so he decides to take the sorcerer's place. Once he arrives, this imposter has to act like he knows what he is doing, and at the same time, he had better solve the eviction problem.
Black Mic Mac
1986
7.1Jealousy and hatred is what separates the Pandavas and Kauravas. The Kauravas fear the Pandavas are after the throne of their father. Yudhishthira of the Pandavas gets told by the deity, Krishna, that he will become king. A war is inevitable.
The Mahabharata
1990
6.6It is an ordinary afternoon for young Mabo Keïta, at home, in Burkina Faso (West Africa). While his parents are taking a nap, he reads a schoolbook on the front porch when a stranger - an elderly man carrying his own hammock - appears for an unexpected visit. It turns out that the old man is a griot, a West African musician/entertainer whose performances include tribal histories and genealogies. The position of a griot is a time-honored one and passed down from father to son for many generations.
Keita! The Voice of the Griot
1996
6.1Young graffiti artist Tony and his friend Jockey jump-start an unexpected adventure on the streets of Grenoble, France, when they steal a car that's already occupied by an older man who's been sleeping in the back, Léon Marcel.
IP5: The Island of Pachyderms
1992
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Le Dur Métier de policier
1995
5.6Ali is the image of modern Africa. He happily returns from a football match on his motorbike but a nasty surprise is waiting for him at his parents' home: he finds Haoua, his bride-to-be, waiting for him. The wedding is celebrated shortly afterwards and the two begin living together under the same roof. They are strangers but cannot stand each other. Haoua is the classic traditional woman who has just arrived from the village, God-fearing and faithful to the laws of tradition. Ali's friends advise him to look for a second wife. He meets Henriette, an uninhibited and provocative city girl, the woman of his dreams. To meet Henriette's constant requests, Ali 'borrows' some money from the coffers of commander Soleymane, but he is discovered and ends up in prison. Henriette is furious and leaves him, whilst Haoua cries for him in despair.
Women Cars Villas Money
1972
5.0An allegory of the Golem, a Jewish mythical creature personifying displacement and exile, this film tells the story of a woman (similar to the biblical Ruth) and her sisters, who are forced into exile after the death of their husbands. It is set in 1990s Paris, where the director was living in self-imposed exile following the ban on his 1982 documentary in Israel. The recurring theme of the film is migrations and unrooting, like the legendary Golem.
Golem, the Spirit of Exile
1992
6.6A traveller who has lost his passport in a Paris airport while between flights is restricted to a special transit zone. There he finds a group of similarly lost people hiding out and living from hand-to-mouth, reliant on their ingenuity to survive.
Lost in Transit
1993
8.0When Cecile (Sylvie Yameogo), an unwed mother-to-be, refuses to identify the father of her child, she is thrown out of her parents' home and eventually leaves her baby in a field, where another family finds him and takes him home. Michel (Alassane Dakissaga), the head of the household, reluctantly assumes responsibility for the baby after going to the police, the local priest and the traditional village chief, each of whom advises him to seek the counsel of another authority.
Wendemi
1993
9.0The gods have declared the drought of the country. There seems to be no hope. A holy man summoned by the king requires the sacrifice of a young woman to put an end to their anger. A young man in love decides to go in search of water to save the girl from a tragic end, but when he returns with good news it's too late: the genie had his satisfaction and Toula has already disappeared in the holy swamp.
Toula, or the Genie of the Water
1973
4.4A Senegalese storyteller travels to Belgium and observes the lives of African expatriates in Europe. Dreams and struggles great and small are explored.
Names Live Nowhere
1994
10.0A dying woman, who stole her best friend's lover, is convinced that a spell has been cast on her, so she orchestrates her former friend's return from a self-imposed exile in Africa in the hopes of breaking the spell.
The African Woman
1990