#YNaijaNonBinary: 15 queer African films you need to see

By
Ifeanyi Ogbo
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While we await the release of Ìfé the Movie, a cinema feat that has garnered massive anticipation in and out of the shores of Nigeria, let’s look back on some movies that have told the stories of LGBT Africans both real and fictional. The themes of the movies are universal – people trying to find acceptance and love in a society where their lives are in danger. Even in countries where homosexuality is legal, life isn’t exactly a bed of roses for LGBT folks.

From Egypt to South Africa, Cape Verde to Kenya, here are 15 0ther movies as curated by @queerafricans on Twitter that chronicle the stories of LGBT Africans both real and fictional.

 

  1. This story of a romance between two Kenyan women was shown at Cannes after being banned in Kenya and has gone ahead to garner universal acclaim. The movie currently has a 93% approval rating on Rotten tomatoes.

    2.    Directed by Ishaya Bako and with cinematography by Clarence Peters, Braids on a Bald Head won the Best Short Film award at the 8th Africa Movie Academy Awards.

    3.   Available on Amazon prime, the movie chronicles a lawyer’s battle to end the ostracization of queer people in Cameroon.

    4. In a working-class neighbourhood in Casablanca, Abdellah, a homosexual teen, tries to build his own life within his big family, caught between an authoritarian mother and an older brother, who he adores.

    5. A tough, tender tale of familial angst with careful attention to detail, My Brother the Devil is a strong debut from director Sally El Hosaini and presently holds a 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

    6.  An invigorating documentary, Be Yourself is available to watch here ,

    Être Soi-Même/Be Yourself (Cameroon). Three homosexuals (two men and one woman) from Montreal’s black communities recount the conflicts they faced, before they could assert themselves and prejudices that hindered their development after their release. pic.twitter.com/Bz2IGMQGny

    7. This intimate documentary I am Gay and Muslim follows a number of young Moroccan gay men in their exploration of their religious and sexual identity.

    8. The Pass does indeed look at the taboo subject of being an openly gay man in top-flight British football and indeed sport generally. It features Nigerian actor Arinze Kene.

    9. Directed by Akosua Owusu, This epistolary short film invites us into the unsettling life of a young Ghanaian man struggling to reconcile his love for his mother with his love for same-sex desire.

    10. Released in 2016, the movie chronicles the story of 14-year-old Ibrahim and  Rafa after they meet in a nightclub.

    11. A documentary about the journey of Tatenda Ngwaru, an intersex activist who fled Zimbabwe to seek asylum in the United States.

    12. Award-winning author  Lauren Beukes (her novel, Zoo City, won the 2011 Arthur Clarke award) turns a filmic eye on guys who bravely present their glittering inner lady to the world, and ask to be crowned in a beauty pageant.

    13. Directed by Maher Sabry, it is noted as being the first film to handle the subject of male homosexuality and the status of homosexuals in Egypt.

    14. Directed by Mohammed Camara, Dakan won the Grand Jury Award for Outstanding Foreign Narrative Feature at LA film fest and has been described as the first West African feature film to deal with homosexuality.

    15. The story follows the exceptional life of 20-year-old Kelet, a Finnish Somali trans woman living in Helsinki who dreams of becoming a model in Vogue magazine.

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