No African director is in competition for the Golden Bear, which will be awarded Wednesday evening to the best film in the competition, but several have presented remarkable works in the parallel sections.
In her documentary "No Simple Way Home", director Akuol de Mabior takes a very personal look at the recent history of South Sudan by telling her country through the legacy left by her father, John Garang, historic leader of the war of independence against Sudan, killed in 2005 in a helicopter crash.
For her first feature film, the 30-year-old, born in Cuba but who grew up in Kenya, gives voice to her mother and sister by striving to find meaning and hope in her country of heart, overwhelmed by years of civil wars and political instability.
Former rebel leader John Garang is sworn in as Sudan's first vice-president on July 9, 2005 in Khartoum SALAH OMAR AFP/Archives
This documentary aims to "generate discussions on what it means, in an African context, to feel at home in one's own country", explains Ms. De Mabior to AFP.
“I originally wanted to make a film about my mother because history tends to forget the contributions of women. I felt my father would be remembered and I was afraid she would be forgotten. “, adds the director.
Independent since 2011, South Sudan is plagued by poverty and torn by communal conflicts and power struggles.
Between the end of 2013 and 2018, a civil war accompanied by terrible abuses pitted the forces of President Salva Kiir against those of his deputy Riek Machar, from the two main Dinka and Nuer ethnic groups.
Filming migration differently
The film took a more political turn when the director's mother, Rebecca Nyandeng, was appointed in 2020 to one of the posts of vice-presidents of the government of national unity resulting from the peace agreement in South Sudan. .
South Sudan's Vice President Rebecca Nyandeng De Mabior during a United Nations General Assembly at UN Headquarters on September 24, 2021 in New York JOHN ANGELILLO POOL/AFP/Archives
"I started thinking more broadly about the impact she might have on the country, whether the leaders who were involved in the liberation struggle are the right people to get things done," observes Mrs. De Mabior.
"No Simple Way Home" is one of two films presented at the Berlinale as part of "Generation Africa", a project funding documentaries offering a new narrative on migration.
The second is called "No U-Turn" ("No U-turn possible"), by Nigerian director Ike Nnaebue, pillar of "Nollywood", the powerful Nigerian film industry.
This award-winning filmmaker is taking the route he took twenty years ago when he wanted to reach Europe.
From Nigeria to Morocco, via Benin, Mali and Mauritania, he talks with young people tempted by exile, who talk about their hopes and the reasons pushing them to leave: family pressure, unemployment, economic context and social.
He had at the time given up and turned back to study directing in his native country.
Break the clichés
In the "Encounters" section, another moving documentary, "Father's Day" by director Kivu Ruhorahoza, tells the daily life of three families in Rwanda and their heartbreak.
Director Kivu Ruhorahoza during the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival, April 21, 2011 in New York Joe Corrigan GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/Archives
In turn, the spectator meets a mother who tries to overcome the loss of her son who died in an accident and who, to protect herself, gradually distances herself from her husband, a petty criminal who aspires to transmit wisdom to her son and a young woman caring for the sick father she never really loved.
Among the short films, "We, Students!"
stands out: directed by Rafiki Fariala, it depicts the chaotic life of a group of economics students at the University of Bangui, in the Central African Republic, the second least developed country in the world according to the UN and in civil war for over eight years old.
The film "is not there to change the world but serves to tell our story, to show who we are", declared Mr. Fariala to AFP who also wishes to break the clichés about Africa: "we also have a another story (...), talent. We have another way of seeing things".
© 2022 AFP