Best African drama movies

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.

As a child, Ali Neuman narrowly escaped being murdered by Inkhata, a militant political party at war with Nelson Mandela's African National Congress. Only he and his mother survived the carnage of those years. But as with many survivors, the psychological scars remain.

A young South African boy from the Johannesburg ghetto named Tsotsi, meaning Gangster, leaves home as a child to get away from his helpless parents. Now a teenage thug, Tsotsi finds a baby in the back seat of a car he's just stolen. He decides that it is his responsibility to care for the infant and in the process learns that maybe the criminal life isn’t the best way.

When Sawa's mother and policeman father are found victims of a grisly double homicide, she begins a ruthless pursuit for the man who murdered them. With the help of her father's ex-partner, Karl Aker, and a mysterious friend from her past, she becomes a merciless teen assassin, blasting her way through the dark world of human trafficking only to uncover a devastating truth

After a failed sabotage mission, a trio of anti-apartheid freedom fighters ends up in a tense bank hostage situation. Based on a true story.

The Square looks at the hard realities faced day-to-day by people working to build Egypt’s new democracy. Cairo’s Tahrir Square is the heart and soul of the film, which follows several young activists. Armed with values, determination, music, humor, an abundance of social media, and sheer obstinacy, they know that the thorny path to democracy only began with Hosni Mubarak’s fall. The life-and-death struggle between the people and the power of the state is still playing out.

In an effort to dismantle their military-backed government, four men hijack an airplane, leveraging passengers onboard in the name of social change.

A young man in 1981 South Africa must complete his brutal and racist two years of compulsory military service while desperately maintaining the secrecy of his homosexuality.

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.

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.

Over the course of one fateful day, a corrupt businessman and his socialite wife race to save their daughter from a notorious crime lord.

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.

When two corrupt police officers investigate the brutal murder of a young girl, tensions come to a head in their small, racially-segregated town.

Qinawi, a physically challenged peddler who makes his living selling newspapers in the central Cairo train station, is obsessed with Hanuma, an attractive young woman who sells drinks. While she jokes with him about a possible relationship, she is actually in love with Abu Siri, a strong and respected porter at the station who is struggling to unionize his fellow workers to combat their boss' exploitative and abusive treatment.

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.

In the south of Tunisia, two football fan brothers bump into a donkey lost in the middle of the desert on the border of Algeria. Strangely, the animal wears headphones over its ears.

An Egyptian-American returns to his homeland after twenty years abroad, filled with nostalgia and high hopes. But as he reconnects with his roots, he finds himself caught between two worlds—and begins to experience the reality of a country he thought he knew.

It's South Africa 1990. Two major events are about to happen: The release of Nelson Mandela and, more importantly, it's Spud Milton's first year at an elite boys only private boarding school. John Milton is a boy from an ordinary background who wins a scholarship to a private school in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa. Surrounded by boys with nicknames like Gecko, Rambo, Rain Man and Mad Dog, Spud has his hands full trying to adapt to his new home. Along the way Spud takes his first tentative steps along the path to manhood. (The path it seems could be a rather long road). Spud is an only child. He is cursed with parents from well beyond the lunatic fringe and a senile granny. His dad is a fervent anti-communist who is paranoid that the family domestic worker is running a shebeen from her room at the back of the family home. His mom is a free spirit and a teenager's worst nightmare, whether it's shopping for Spud's underwear in the local supermarket

This South African movie tracks the rise of a once-petty criminal to the heights of the criminal underworld. After cutting his teeth on hijacking, before moving onto bigger game, an ambitious man hits a setback when most of his gang are shot.

Director Alfred Hitchcock is revered as one of the greatest creative minds in the history of cinema. Known for his psychological thrillers, Hitchcock’s leading ladies were cool, beautiful and preferably blonde. One such actress was Tippi Hedren, an unknown fashion model given her big break when Hitchcock’s wife saw her on a TV commercial. Brought to Universal Studios, Hedren was shocked when the director, at the peak of his career, quickly cast her to star in his next feature, 1963’s The Birds. Little did Hedren know that as ambitious and terrifying as the production would be to shoot, the most daunting aspect of the film ended up coming from behind the camera.

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.

Mory, a cowherd, and Anta, a university student, try to make money in order to go to Paris and leave their boring past behind.

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.

A dinner party unravels when a tight group of friends agree to leave their phones unlocked on the table, exposing juicy interactions and dark secrets.

Hassan, a brilliant aviation engineer struggles with loneliness and depression while trying to design his exceptional project.

An ex-car smuggler is given three hours to deliver a government official's daughter to her captor — or else his family will suffer the consequences.

A social drama about four marginalized prostitutes in Marrakech and their complex relations with their families and society at large.

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!

A man finds himself stuck in a mysterious time loop, reliving the same day again and again. As the cycle repeats, he is forced to confront his daily routines, question his relationships, and search for meaning in a world that refuses to change.

The film follows two brothers over the course of a decade. While they begin as kids in search of thrills in the sprawling slums of Morocco’s Sidi Moumen, we witness their gradual, and ultimately shocking, radicalisation.

In 16th-century Zazzau, now Zaria, Nigeria, Amina must utilize her military skills and tactics to defend her family's kingdom. Based on a true story.

portrays the lives of residents in an old Cairo building "The Yacoubian Building", highlighting issues like corruption, extremism, class disparity, and sexuality. Through diverse characters, the film offers a critical examination of the Egyptian society

Alexandria, Egypt, 1940. Three young Egyptians come to the aid of a woman being attacked by three British soldiers. One of them is arrested and thrown in jail. When the military surrounds the police station and begins an all-out assault, it's up to one man, Gen. Youssef al-Masri, to defend his prison and protect his people.

The year is 1991, and Spud Milton's long walk to manhood is still creeping along at an unnervingly slow pace. Approaching the ripe old age of fifteen and still no signs of the much anticipated ball-drop, Spud is coming to terms with the fact that he may well be a freak of nature. With a mother hell-bent on emigrating, a father making a killing out of selling homemade moonshine, and a demented grandmother called Wombat, the new year seems to offer little except extreme embarrassment and more mortifying Milton madness. But Spud is returning to a boarding school where he is no longer the youngest or the smallest. His dormitory mates, known as the Crazy Eight, have an unusual new member and his house has a new clutch of first years (the Normal Seven). If Spud thinks his second year will be a breeze, however, he is seriously mistaken.

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.

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.

Three years after the events of the first film, the four brothers are trying in various ways to preserve the covenant they made to themselves to stay away from a life of theft and crime, but one event in their lives changes all that, and introduces them to new worlds for them, and puts them in very dangerous confrontations with A number of professional criminals.

A bright student in Nigeria takes on the academic establishment when she reports a popular professor who tried to rape her. Based on real events.

The movie focuses on the fury state that was among the people in synchronization with the main event in Egypt: The 1919 Egyptian Revolution which unites the fates of Kira and El Gen to participate in the struggle against the British occupation.

Ali, Kwita, Omar and Boubker are street kids. The daily dose of glue sniffing represents their only escape from reality. Since they left Dib and his gang, they have been living on the portside of Casablanca. They live in constant fear of Dib's revenge. Ali wants to become a sailor - when he was living with his mother, a prostitute, he used to listen to a fairy tale about the sailor who discovered the miracle island with two suns. Instead of finding his island in the dream, Ali and his friends are confronted with Dib's gang. Matters are getting serious.

When young Litha is introduced to the magic of a game reserve by the last remaining ranger, they are ambushed by poachers. In the ensuing battle to save the rhinos, Litha discovers a terrible secret.

A wildlife biologist working on fostering the protection of wildlife in Africa is forced to team up with a theme park designer who wants to create an over-the-top safari attraction

Following a stint behind bars, a thief returns to where he buried his loot, only to find that his hiding spot is now a shrine to an unknown saint.

Abla runs a modest local bakery from her home in Casablanca where she lives alone with her 8-year-old daughter Warda. Their routine of housework and homework is interrupted one day by a knock on the door. It is Samia, a young woman looking for a job and a roof over her head. The little girl is immediately taken with the newcomer, but her mother initially refuses to allow a pregnant stranger into their home. Gradually, however, Abla's resolve softens and Samia's arrival begins to offer all of them the prospect of a new life.

A tour guide named "Noor" travels to Sharm el-Sheikh with his family to take the advantage of an offer provided by a company to spend a honeymoon in order to meet an Italian girl named "Perla". He finds there a girl named "Layla " staying in the same villa . By the time Noor's family allied with "Layla " to discourage him from developing a relationship with "Perla".

Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.

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.

Morgan, who is an uneducated very rich man, is used to buy everything he wants. Now the one thing we wants is a college certificate which he seeks to buy.

Ahmed heads to Tahrir compound to extract papers to move his son to another school. There he clashes with the administrative obstacles. He suddenly finds himself involved in carrying a weapon and taking hostages at the government building and becomes a terrorist in the process.

Seeking job opportunities, a young man arrives in Cairo and becomes increasingly involved with the family of a wealthy businessman.

A Nigerian couple living in Brooklyn are having trouble conceiving a child - a problem that defies cultural expectations and leads to a shocking decision that could either save or destroy them.

Three women seek justice due to the difficult daily situation which sexual harassment causes in the streets of Cairo, Egypt.

Frank Rautenbach leads a strong cast as Angus Buchan, a Zambian farmer of Scottish heritage, who leaves his farm in the midst of political unrest and racially charged land reclaims and travels south with his family to start a better life in KwaZulu Natal,South Africa.

Twelve-year-old Noura dangles uncertainly in that difficult netherworld between childhood and adulthood. His growing libido has gotten him banned from the women's baths, where his mother took him when he was younger, but he's not yet old enough to participate in grown-up discussions with the men of his Tunisian village. Noura's only real friend is a troublemaker named Salih -- the village political outcast.

A Christian kid suddenly is forced to go to a public school after his father dies and because of a misunderstanding everyone thinks that he's a Muslim.

After witnessing the murder of his father as a child, Ibrahim is drawn into the criminal underworld of Egypt. While making a name for himself with his best friend Ashri, he finds his high school sweetheart Houria and manages to rekindle their love, but paths intertwine with Abdel Malik Zarzor, the city's crime lord, who is connected somehow to Houria.

A terrorist Muslim group calls for the execution of Sheikh Hassan for refusing to join their organisation. At the same time, a priest ,Marcos, is also facing death threats. Both men seek help from the government, who puts them under the witness protection program, giving each man the other's identity.

Sheikh Hosny is a blind man who lives with his old mother and his frustrated son in the Kit Kat neighborhood. His son Youssef dreams of going to Europe to find work, and has a relationship with a divorced woman named Fatima. Sheikh Hosny refuses to admit his handicap and dreams of riding a motorcycle like every sighted person, he also spends his nights smoking hash with the locals in order to forget his miseries after the loss of his wife and selling his father's house.

Eastern Cape, South Africa. A lonely factory worker, Xolani, takes time off his job to assist during an annual Xhosa circumcision initiation into manhood. In a remote mountain camp that is off limits to women, young men, painted in white ochre, recuperate as they learn the masculine codes of their culture. In this environment of machismo and aggression, Xolani cares for a defiant initiate from Johannesburg, Kwanda, who quickly learns Xolani's best kept secret, that he is in love with another man.

The events revolve around Akram, who receives an invitation to attend a masquerade party. He decides to wear police uniforms, which causes him to suffer a crisis as a police officer, while looking for a particular file.

A seemingly ordinary life is shattered when a woman uncovers a hidden truth about her husband, plunging her into a high-stakes international conflict. As loyalties blur and danger escalates, an Egyptian intelligence officer is tasked with a critical mission where failure is not an option.

A few days before she travels to Mecca to perform Hajj, Ghada faces an emergency which forces her to reach out to people from her tainted past with whom she had cut off contact in order to collect a large sum of money. So, as she collects the money, will she manage to go to Mecca, or get tangled up in the past's webs?

Mahmoud Shuaib, a wealthy man diagnosed with Alzheimer's, begins making unusual financial decisions. Fearing for their inheritance, his two sons take legal action to gain control of his estate.

Mansour El-Hefny’s wealthy family rule an Upper Egyptian island. Some police officers facilite their arms dealing in exchange for information, and corrupt parliament members use their immunity to par-take in their drug trade.

Samir is the head of a small family and a bank employee and stable in his work, but separated after the decision to reduce the employment and then surprise that his bank balance zero and after days find a box with a mobile phone to meet a call changed his life by recruiting him to spy on people through an organization called The Originals.

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.