Tigritudes: pan-African film anthology comes to London

Shining a spotlight on the continent's 'richly diverse and powerful film cultures', from 1956 to the present day

Philippe Lacôte's award-winning Night of the Kings
Philippe Lacôte's award-winning Night of the Kings is on the bill
(Image credit: BFA / Alamy Stock Photo)

The "brilliant yet lesser-known gems of Pan-African cinema" are set to be shown in London across a two-month season, said Time Out.

It is a "subjective and chronological anthology", which shares the "range, inventiveness, and vitality of a moving image culture afflicted by chronic international under-distribution", said BFI Southbank, which will be showing a selection of films from the wider collection. Others will be shown at the Tate Modern and The Garden Cinema, Covent Garden.

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Also on the bill is Philippe Lacôte's award-winning 2020 "Night of the Kings", an Ivory Coast prison drama. It blends "modern-day thriller dynamics and fluid handheld visuals with older storytelling traditions", said The Guardian when it came out in 2021.

As well as the work of such "critically acclaimed directors" including Julie Dash, Med Hondo and Souleymane Cissé, "less recognisable" names are featured. Their work forms part of the "myriad richly diverse and powerful film cultures" of Africa and its diasporas, expressed in an "unprecedented plurality of styles, themes, and languages", said the BFI.

The season's title comes from a phrase coined by Nigerian poet, playwright and Nobel prize-winner Wole Soyinka: "A tiger does not proclaim his tigritude; he pounces" .

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Adrienne Wyper has been a freelance sub-editor and writer for The Week's website and magazine since 2015. As a travel and lifestyle journalist, she has also written and edited for other titles including BBC Countryfile, British Travel Journal, Coast, Country Living, Country Walking, Good Housekeeping, The Independent, The Lady and Woman’s Own.