Disco Afrika: A Malagasy Story by Malagasy director Luck Razanajaona is finally ready for its official Kenyan premiere on December 5.
While the film did enjoy a screening at the Nairobi Film Festival, Disco Afrika will show at Unseen Nairobi, in a double feature showing alongside Brian Obra’s We Shall Not Forget.
This event will feature a Q&A session with both directors.
Luck Razanajaona, Disco Afrika’s director, will be in conversation with Brian Obra about film and revolution in Africa, and civil society.
We Shall Not Forget, a film on Kenya’s national protests in June, recently won Best Documentary Short at CANEX.
Distributed by Sudu Connexion, Disco Afrika will also be showing in Kisumu and Mombasa, at KUAP Vocational Hall on December 7 (2 pm) and at Alliance Française Mombasa on December 10 (6:30 pm) respectively.
Luck Razanajaona and French-Burkinabe CEO of Sudu Connexion Claire Diao will be in attendance at these screenings.
Read about the film’s NBO Premiere.
Film Synopsis
According to the summary, the film follows 20-year-old Kwame as he struggles to make a living in the sapphire mines.
An unexpected event takes him back to his hometown and as he reunites with his mother and old friends, he finds himself confronted with the rampant corruption plaguing his country.
This forces him to choose between easy money and loyalty, and individualism and political awakening.
Filmed in Toamasina (Tamatave), Madagascar in 2023, Disco Afrika: A Malagasy Story is the first feature film by director Luck Razanajaona, a former student of the Higher School of Visual Arts in Marrakech, Morocco, who first came to our screens with the short film Madama Esther (JCC Silver Tanit 2014, Fespaco Silver Foal 2015).
Disco Afrika had its world premiere at the 2023 Marrakech International Film Festival (Morocco), and its international premiere at the 2024 Berlinale, where it won the AG Kino Special Mention.
It has since received the Spanish Cooperation Prize and the Best Actor Prize awarded to Parista Sambo at the Tarifa African Cinema Festival (FCAT) 2024 in Spain, as well as the Jury Prize at the Köln African Festival 2024 in Germany.
Parista Sambo, in his on-screen debut, stars alongside the late Laurette Ramasinjanahary, artist Drwina Razafimahaleo, Joe Lerova, and Jérôme Oza. The film was produced by We Film (France) in co-production with Africamadavibe Production (Madagascar), Niko Film (Germany), Caméléon Production (Mauritius), and Free Women Films (South Africa).
Represented internationally by pan-African sales and distribution company Sudu Connexion, Disco Afrika will be showing at Unseen Nairobi to a wider public in January of 2025. It will also be released in French-speaking Africa in March 2025, in France in April 2025 and in the United Kingdom in June 2025.
