Essay Sample on African Movies

Introduction

Africans are making remarkable progress in the articles as well as cinemas. The films contain different themes such as African Leadership, youth and urban life, African youth and culture, civil war and military dictatorship as well as cultural resistance. Nairobi Half-Life is a film that is worth your time as it addresses the challenges that youths coming to Nairobi, which is a Metropolitan city face. Many people come to the city in search of employment, and yes, Nairobi is the city of unlimited opportunities. However, life in the city is challenging, and this is portrayed in the film by Mwas (Gitonga). Due to lack of finances, he results in joining a gangster and his criminal activities jeopardize his endeavours of becoming an actor. The living conditions in the city are different from what Mwas expected when he moved from his rural home to Nairobi city. The poor conditions in the city make Mwas live a low life that is far from what he had aspired of. This film perfectly depicts the theme of youth and urban life and the challenges that they face.

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Gun Runners

Gunrunners are a film depicting the theme is African youth and culture. The film stars Julius Arile and Robert Matanda (Nayar). The film is worth our time as stars the two men who are trading their AK- 47s to get running shoes. The two men are for years involved in cattle theft, and they are linked with homicide cases. They might also be involved in feudal conflicts and terrorism, but luckily they get a chance to transform. Adopting new life as professional runners is not easy to enter and maintain. For Arile, he acknowledged that he had a talent in professional running, but for Matanda, this new venture was not an easy one. The story is excellent as it touches on a issues that are possible in society. The authenticity of the film and the themes presented is, therefore, not a debatable issue in the Gun Runner film. Running has positively impacted many lives, and many Kenyan athletes have become rich by venturing in professional athletics.

Finding Fela

Finding Fela depicts the political struggles of Fela Kuti. Kuti came from an influential family with his father being a headmaster and a protestant minister and his mother a trailblazer in South Africa (Gibney). While Fela's brother studied medicine in the United Kingdom, Fela was not more into studying. Fela was passionate about music. Fela was married, had children and countless mistresses who he later married in a ceremony. He claimed that the ceremony was significant in strengthening his roots. Fela played a critical role in political resistance through his music.

Lumumba

The Lumumba film reflects the challenges affecting African leaders and the African leadership in general. The Lumumba film analyses how Lumumba was assassinated while serving as the president of Congo (Peck). The readers have an opportunity to see what African leaders go through and the resistance that they get from the people that they trust. Many nations in Africa have conflicts because of selfish interests, where small minority groups want to get into leadership positions for them to control the resources of their countries.

The viewers have an opportunity to compare the leadership of their countries and the one that is reflected in the Lumumba film. The challenges in leadership that are experienced in Africa after their leaders seize power. There are no young leaders that are mentored by the older generation of leaders in Africa; hence the gap in leadership during the transition from one generation to the other results in conflicts (Peck). Ladies and gentlemen, the Lumumba film is the best film to what to understand African leadership.

The Last King of Scotland

The Last King of Scotland is a historical movie that tells the story of the life of a dictator from Uganda who was the president of Uganda, and he led the country in a manner that was not acceptable to many people in Uganda and around the world (Macdonald). In the movie the Last King of Scotland, the actions of President Idi Amin reflect the type of leadership that the majority of African leaders. The movie, through character Nicholas Garrigan shows how self-interests make the leaders use illegal ways to get into power.

The movie also shows the mistrust between leaders where they fear their colleagues have hidden intentions of planning to take up power illegally. The colleagues lose trust leading to a fall out between the leaders (Macdonald). African leaders get sabotaged by their colleagues because of the conflict of interest. There is also the issue of giving power and position to close friends and relatives. The close friends of the African leaders are the ones who get the opportunity to fill vacant positions in government.

Works Cited

Gibney, Alex, director. Finding Fela, 2014.Gitonga, David, director. Nairobi Half-Life. 2012.

Macdonald, Kevin, director. The Last King of Scotland. 2006.

Nayar, Anjali, director. Gun Runners. 2015.

Peck, Raoul, director. Lumumba. 2002.