Wednesday and Sunday nights

Inspired by the movie awards season, The Africa Channel presents award-winning, UK Premiere films, showcased in the channel’s ‘Africa Picture House’ strand. The season offers an array of diverse stories – a moving portrait of everyday life in Uganda; revenge and personal destiny in Chad, and a humorous take on a Malian family finding their feet abroad. Africa Picture House also takes the viewer behind the scenes with a series of exclusive Director interviews,  enabling them to personally introduce their films to the UK audience.

Daratt (2007) was broadcast on Sunday 10th March 9pm – another masterpiece from Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, and winner of the prestigious Grand Special Jury at the Venice Film Festival.  Daratt, set in the wake of Chad’s civil war; follows 16-year-old Atim, as he leaves his village to seek out the war criminal who killed his father, planning bloody revenge. But when Atim finds his target, Nassara, a strange, uneasy friendship starts to develop.

Find out more about the film here: Africa Picture House meets the award-winning Chadian director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, who discusses the making and the story behind Daratt and Sex, Okra and Salted Butter. He also talks about the opening of a new film school in Chad, and his hopes for the future of African cinema and his encounters with Robert de Niro and Jude Law at the Cannes Film Festival.

The Africa Channel’s film season also includes a window into Ugandan life with the film Imani (2010).  Awards include Best Feature Film at The Zanzibar International Film Festival 2010, and The Silver Award at The Cairo International Film Festival.

Imani paints an intimate portrait of three individuals living in contemporary Uganda; a child soldier returning to the parents who could not protect him, a woman fighting to free her wrongly accused sister from jail, and a youth dance troop leader struggling to simply get through a hometown performance.

Award-winning director Caroline Kamya received glowing reviews for her first foray into feature film.  Critics at the Seattle International Film Festival said ‘her fast and confident directing effortlessly makes the most of the beautiful Ugandan setting.’

The ‘Africa Picture House’ season presented the UK premiere of Mahamat-Saleh Haroun’s film Sex, Okra and Salted Butter (2008) – a refreshingly humorous take on African immigration to France.

Africa Picture House will be an ongoing, regular showcase of highly acclaimed Africa inspired films. Further details of upcoming broadcasts will be announced soon.