Best African drama movies
Get ready to binge. We've found a collection of must-watch drama films from Africa, now streaming on Netflix, HBO, Hulu, Prime Video, and other top services!
Five Fingers for Marseilles (2018)
Five Fingers for Marseilles (2018)
Years ago, the young Five Fingers fought for the rural town of Marseilles against brutal police oppression. Now, after fleeing in disgrace, Tau, one of them, returns to Marseilles, seeking only a peaceful life. When he finds the town under new threat, he must reluctantly fight to free it.
Hotel Rwanda (2004)
Hotel Rwanda (2004)
Inspired by true events, this film takes place in Rwanda in the 1990s when more than a million Tutsis were killed in a genocide that went mostly unnoticed by the rest of the world. Hotel owner Paul Rusesabagina houses over a thousand refuges in his hotel in attempt to save their lives.
Sarafina! (1992)
Sarafina! (1992)
The plot centers on students involved in the Soweto Riots, in opposition to the implementation of Afrikaans as the language of instruction in schools. The stage version presents a school uprising similar to the Soweto uprising on June 16, 1976. A narrator introduces several characters among them the school girl activist Sarafina. Things get out of control when a policeman shoots several pupils in a classroom. Nevertheless, the musical ends with a cheerful farewell show of pupils leaving school, which takes most of act two. In the movie version Sarafina feels shame at her mother's (played by Miriam Makeba in the film) acceptance of her role as domestic servant in a white household in apartheid South Africa, and inspires her peers to rise up in protest, especially after her inspirational teacher, Mary Masombuka (played by Whoopi Goldberg in the film version) is imprisoned.
Moffie (2020)
Destiny (1997)
Destiny (1997)
In the 12th century's Andalusia lives Ibn Rushd a prominent Islamic philosopher with his wife Zeinab and daughter Salma. The principality is ruled by Khalifa ElMansour who has two sons, ElNasser, an intellectual that likes Ibn Rush and is in love with his daughter Salma. The younger son Abdallah is more into dancing and poetry, spending most of his times with the gypsy family and getting the daughter pregnant. The Khalifa is depending on the extremists to build his army granting them more power which they use to combat artists and philosophers. The extremists succeed in recruiting Abd Allah and train him to kill his father. Events go on where Marawan, the gypsy singer, is killed and Ibn Rushd's books are burnt. Adapted from the real life of Ibn Rushd AlMasir is Chahine's statement against extremism.
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (2013)
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (2013)
A chronicle of Nelson Mandela's life journey from his childhood in a rural village through to his inauguration as the first democratically elected president of South Africa.
The Blue Elephant (2014)
The Blue Elephant (2014)
After a five-year hiatus, psychiatrist Yehia returns to work at Abbasiya Hospital. He’s assigned to evaluate a patient who turns out to be his old friend. As events unfold, Yehia uncovers dark secrets that challenge his understanding of reality.
Rafiki (2018)
Rafiki (2018)
Kena and Ziki long for something more. Despite the political rivalry between their families, the girls resist and remain close friends, supporting each other to pursue their dreams in a conservative society. When love blossoms between them, the two girls will be forced to choose between happiness and safety.
Kanarie (2018)
Kanarie (2018)
Kanarie (Afrikaans for 'Canary') is a coming-of-age musical war drama. Drafted into the South African army during apartheid, a young soldier joins the military's traveling choir, and romance on the battlefield causes him to deal with his long-repressed sexual identity through hardship, camaraderie, first love, and the liberating freedom of music, the true self can be discovered.
The Pirates of Somalia (2017)
The Pirates of Somalia (2017)
After an inspiring chance encounter with his idol, rookie journalist Jay Bahadur uproots his life and moves to Somalia looking for the story of a lifetime. Hooking up with a local fixer, he attempts to get embedded with the local Somali pirates, only to quickly find himself in over his head.
The First Grader (2010)
The First Grader (2010)
The true story of an 84 year-old Kenyan villager and ex Mau Mau freedom fighter who fights for his right to go to school for the first time to get the education he could never afford.
Clash (2016)
Clash (2016)
In 2013, in Cairo, a tragic fate brings together several detainees from different political and social backgrounds inside a police truck, during the turmoil that followed the ousting of president Morsi.
Cairo Time (2009)
Cairo Time (2009)
In Cairo on her own as she waits for her husband, Juliette finds herself caught in a whirlwind romance with his friend Tareq, a retired cop. As Tareq escorts Juliette around the city, they find themselves in the middle of a brief affair that catches them both unawares.
Saladin the Victorious (1963)
Saladin the Victorious (1963)
The first Sultan of Egypt and Syria leads the Muslim military campaign against the invading Christians from Europe during the Third Crusade.
Alexandria… Why? (1979)
Alexandria… Why? (1979)
Amid the poverty, death, and suffering caused by World War II, 18-year-old Yehia retreats into a private world of fantasy and longing. Obsessed with Hollywood, he dreams of studying filmmaking in America but struggles to pursue his dream, given the constraints of his life in the middle class and the horrors of war.
The Night of Counting the Years (1969)
The Night of Counting the Years (1969)
Set in 1881, a year before the start of British colonial rule, it is based on the true story of the Abd el-Rasuls, an Upper-Egyptian clan that had been robbing a cache of mummies they have discovered at tomb DB320 near the village of Kurna, and selling the artifacts on the black market. After a conflict within the clan, one of its members made a crucial decision when the Antiquities Service arrived.
The Blue Elephant 2 (2019)
The Blue Elephant 2 (2019)
A meeting with a new inmate in the psychiatric hospital flips Dr. Yehia's life upside down. She prophecies that the death of his entire family is only three days away.
Half of a Yellow Sun (2013)
Half of a Yellow Sun (2013)
An epic love story: Olanna and Kainene are glamorous twins, living a privileged city life in newly independent 1960s Nigeria. The two women make very different choices of lovers, but rivalry and betrayal must be set aside as their lives are swept up in the turbulence of war.
The Treasure : Love & Destiny (2019)
The Treasure : Love & Destiny (2019)
A sequel to The Treasure (Part 1) - Reality & Fantasy (2017) The movie resumes with the stories of Hatsheput in the Pharaonic era, Ali al-Zaibaq during the Ottoman era and Beshr al-Katatini, head of State Security Investigations Service, who faces new challenges in work and love, whilst pointing his son, Hassan, towards a treasure through his recorded will.
The Hex (2020)
The Hex (2020)
A grieving British girl unravels her murdered mother's secrets connected to a South African witch doctor's curse. She wants to put an end to this haunting hex by traveling to South Africa, but instead it casts her deeper into sinister depths.
Diamond Dust (2018)
Diamond Dust (2018)
Taha works as a pharmacist and lives a normal life with his disabled father. When a mysterious murder occurs, Taha's world changes forever. He starts tracking down many secrets that leads him to unlocks a whole melancholic world of crime!
Hepta (The Last Lecture) (2016)
Hepta (The Last Lecture) (2016)
Based on the best-selling novel of the same title. Dr. Shukri Mokhtar is a renowned social psychology specialist, best known for his ability to answer the simplest questions, who decides to give one last lecture about the very simple question: "how do we love?" He gives a full description of the different stages of love by recounting four different love stories going through curves and various crises.
Good Madam (2021)
Good Madam (2021)
In post-apartheid South Africa, Tsidi, a single mother, is forced to move in with her own estranged mother Mavis, a live-in domestic worker caring obsessively for her catatonic white ‘Madam’. And as Tsidi tries to heal her family, a sinister spectre begins to stir.
Glasshouse (2021)
Glasshouse (2021)
A mother and her three daughters — romantic Bee, sensible Evie, and child of nature Daisy — occupy the titular glass building, which has been completely sealed off to protect its occupants from a dementia-inducing toxin called the Shred that’s poisoning the air outside. Fearful of becoming like the lost souls who wander the abyss outside, the family keep a grasp on their past by performing sacred rituals. When Bee breaks the rules and lets an injured stranger into their midst, the family dynamic is shattered forever, as hidden truths upend the illusions the women have worked so hard to protect.
Sleepless Nights (2003)
Sleepless Nights (2003)
A social romance that portrays the lives of 4 married couples who are friends. As they gather to celebrate the birthday of the daughter of one of them, their fundamental differences and their unstable marriages come to the surface as the men decide to leave for Alexandria.
