Landforms is a series of world cinema screenings from Belfast Film Festival with different seasons showing four contemporary films from countries through which a particular geographical feature extends.
The January season showcases new films from the Sahara. All screenings take place in the Beanbag Cinema in Donegal Street.
Clash (19th January, 8pm) is a tense and technically daring thriller that places the viewer within the confines of an Egyptian police van in 2013 as post-revolution tensions boil over.
The Double Steps (22nd January, 6pm) follows French artist François Augiéras’ alter ego, a wandering ex-soldier, along with an assortment of pilgrims and bandits as they hunt for his fresco in the dunes of northern Mali. A mystical and surreal journey, the film offers a glimpse of West African culture not commonly seen in cinema.
Banned in its native country as ‘a flagrant attack on the kingdom’s image’, Nabil Ayouch’s unflinching film Much Loved (26th January, 8pm) depicts the lives of four high class prostitutes in Marrakech. Their sisterhood and defiant spirit are their defences against a society that exploits and condemns them.
A Screaming Man (29th January, 6pm) is a compelling story of fatherhood is shot against the backdrop of Chad’s escalating civil war as personal and political tensions begin to merge. In the year of its release it won the Jury Prize at Cannes, being the first film from sub-Saharan Africa to compete for the festival’s top awards for 13 years.