“The financial dependence on Europe”
As well as a comprehensive retrospective of films, this year’s bAtìk film festival of Perugia organised a round-table discussion about African cinema, or rather about Africa’s film industries. The plural is obligatory when trying to portray this continent that has a wealth of cultures and different languages. The participants at the round table included Enzo Forini, Mohamed Challouf and Roberto Silvestri – three individuals who created one of Europe’s first-ever festivals for African cinema some twenty years ago here in Perugia. Also taking part were film critic, Giuseppe Gariazzo (the author of two books about African cinema and poetry published by LINDAU) and directors, Ferid Boughedir, Balufu Bakuapa Kanyinda. Mahamoud Ben Mahamoud, Abdheramane Sissako and Aryan Kaganof. The most delicate topic of conversation concerned the financial and social problems of the African continent: major obstacles for the development of the film industry that, as a consequence, also leads to an unavoidable dependence on European productions, especially French, Dutch and Belgian ones.
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