Followed by a conversation with Mark Nash.

Ros Gray presents Abderrahmane Sissako’s Octobre (1993) and Rostov Luanda (1998), drawing on her recent chapter, ‘Haven’t you heard of internationalism? The Socialist Friendships of Mozambican Cinema’ from Lars Kristensen’s book Post Communist Film – Russia, Eastern Europe and World Culture, Routledge, 2012. In its depiction of the relationship between a Russian woman and African man, Sissako’s Octobre is a rare example of an African filmmaker trained in Russia (Sissako studied at VGIK, the Federal State Film Institute) making a film about the black experience in Moscow. Gray will also present extracts from Rostov Luanda, a documentary that takes a group photo taken in 1981 of Angolan, Mauritanian and Cambodian students in Russia as a starting point for Sissako’s search for a lost friend. Gray’s paper and research explores the ‘affective communities’ formed as a result of Soviet support during the Mozambican independence movement and the educational and cultural initiatives that followed the liberation in 1975.

Films to be screened:

Abderrahmane Sissako – Octobre (1993), 35′

Abderrahmane Sissako – Rostov Luanda (1998), extracts