Freedom, Nigeria's contribution to the 1957 Berlin Film Festival, was based on a play commissioned by the Moral Re-Armament Association. Based on a stage piece, the film is an unabashed paean to the MRA, demonstrating how the organization helped to check British colonialism and radical insurrection in Nigeria and bring peace to the troubled country. Subtlety is not the film's strong suit, and as a result the film seems at times to be a self-parody. Reportedly the first African production to be lensed in color, Freedom benefits from the cinematographic expertise of Scandinavia's Richard Taegstrom and Aimo Jaederman. The film was enthusiastically received at the Berlin festival, but fared less well when released internationally.
Freedom, Nigeria's contribution to the 1957 Berlin Film Festival, was based on a play commissioned by the Moral Re-Armament Association. Based on a stage piece, the film is an unabashed paean to the MRA, demonstrating how the organization helped to check British colonialism and radical insurrection in Nigeria and bring peace to the troubled country. Subtlety is not the film's strong suit, and as a result the film seems at times to be a self-parody. Reportedly the first African production to be lensed in color, Freedom benefits from the cinematographic expertise of Scandinavia's Richard Taegstrom and Aimo Jaederman. The film was enthusiastically received at the Berlin festival, but fared less well when released internationally.
1957-08-15
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6.2Inspector Rizzo in Napoli gets a message from a policeman from South Africa who wants to meet him. Immediately before this meeting the South African policeman is killed. Dying he shows Rizzo a picture of his young son Bodo. Rizzo travels to Johannesburg to find out what the policeman was working on and to find Bodo.
6.2An epic about anthropologists who hunt and capture pygmies for study back in Europe, in an attempt to illustrate the link between man and ape.
8.0An Italian in East Africa having an affair with a coloured woman realises that his treatment of her is as tyrannical as more overt superior colonialist dogma. Based on a novel by Enrico Emmanuele.
7.2David Locke is a world-weary American journalist who has been sent to cover a conflict in northern Africa, but he makes little progress with the story. When he discovers the body of a stranger who looks similar to him, Locke assumes the dead man's identity. However, he soon finds out that the man was an arms dealer, leading Locke into dangerous situations. Aided by a beautiful woman, Locke attempts to avoid both the police and criminals out to get him.
6.9The circle of life continues for Simba, now fully grown and in his rightful place as the king of Pride Rock. Simba and Nala have given birth to a daughter, Kiara who's as rebellious as her father was. But Kiara drives her parents to distraction when she catches the eye of Kovu, the son of the evil lioness, Zira. Will Kovu steal Kiara's heart?
6.9Navy SEAL Lieutenant A.K. Waters and his elite squadron of tactical specialists are forced to choose between their duty and their humanity, between following orders by ignoring the conflict that surrounds them, or finding the courage to follow their conscience and protect a group of innocent refugees. When the democratic government of Nigeria collapses and the country is taken over by a ruthless military dictator, Waters, a fiercely loyal and hardened veteran is dispatched on a routine mission to retrieve a Doctors Without Borders physician.
8.3Young lion prince Simba, eager to one day become king of the Pride Lands, grows up under the watchful eye of his father Mufasa; all the while his villainous uncle Scar conspires to take the throne for himself. Amid betrayal and tragedy, Simba must confront his past and find his rightful place in the Circle of Life.
7.0The story of Dian Fossey, a scientist who came to Africa to study the vanishing mountain gorillas, and later fought to protect them.
4.0A young man having omitted to make the ritual offerings of voodoo, suffers the wrath of the spirits.
5.0On their wedding night, a couple rescue a baby from a garbage bin only to adopt it some years later.
4.0Gugu is being thrown out by her husband Themba, who is apparently having an affair with an ex-girlfriend. She crashes at a friend’s house, confronts the ex, and eventually calls in her uncle to mediate with Themba.
0.0A campaign is launched to prevent peasants from leaving the countryside for the city. The village tries to adapt the advice of the technicians for self-sufficiency.
0.0Bejo, 12 years old, lives with his brother Mario, a sculptor. Having heard the news on the radio his dream is to see the Bissau carnival, but he has been forbidden to do so. He escapes, wanders throught the forest, crosses rice fields until the river next to the city. His brother will look for him during the carnival...
7.2Corporate billionaire Edward Cole and working class mechanic Carter Chambers are worlds apart. At a crossroads in their lives, they share a hospital room and discover they have two things in common: a desire to spend the time they have left doing everything they ever wanted to do and an unrealized need to come to terms with who they are. Together they embark on the road trip of a lifetime, becoming friends along the way and learning to live life to the fullest, with insight and humor.
5.9Seasoned adventurer and treasure hunter Dirk Pitt, a former Navy SEAL, sets out for the African desert with his wisecracking buddy Al in search of a confederate ironclad battleship rumored to have vanished long ago, the main draw being the treasure supposedly hidden within the lost vessel. When the daring duo come across Dr. Eva Rojas, a beautiful scientist who is juggling an escape from a warlord and a mission to stop the spread of a powerful plague, their desert expedition begins to heat up.
6.9A fearsome 19th century bandit, Cobra Verde cuts a swath through Brazil until he arrives at the sugar plantation of Don Octávio Countinho. Not knowing that his new guest is the notorious bandit and impressed by his ruthless ways, Don Octávio hires Cobra Verde to oversee his slaves. But when Cobra Verde impregnates Don Octávio’s three daughters, the incensed plantation owner exiles the outlaw to Africa where he is expected to reopen the slave trade. Following his trans-Atlantic journey, Cobra Verde exploits tribal conflicts to commandeer an abandoned fortress and whips an army of naked warriors into a frenzied bloodlust as he vies for survival.
7.6Based on the experiences of Agu, a child fighting in the civil war of a West African country. Follows Agu's journey as he's forced to join a group of soldiers. While he fears his commander and many of the men around him, his fledgling childhood has been brutally shattered by the war raging through his country, and he is at first torn between conflicting revulsion and fascination.
7.5PK, an English orphan terrorized for his family's political beliefs in Africa, turns to his only friend, a kindly world-wise prisoner, Geel Piet. Geel teaches him how to box with the motto “fight with your fists and lead with your heart”. As he grows to manhood, PK uses these words to take on the system and the injustices he sees around him - and finds that one person really can make a difference.
6.9Two adventurers and best friends, Roland and Manu, are the victims of a practical joke that costs Manu his pilot's license. With seeming contrition, the jokesters tell Roland and Manu about a crashed plane lying on the ocean floor off the coast of Congo stuffed with riches. The adventurers set off to find the loot.