Portal:African cinema/Selected birthdays/3

Raja Amari (b. 4 April, 1971) is an award-winning Tunisian film director and scriptwriter whose works often center on female protagonists. Her best-known films include Red Satin (2002), Foreign Body (2016) and Buried Secrets (2016). Her most recent film is the documentary “She Had a Dream” (2020) which follows a Black Tunisian activist running for office in the 2019 legislative elections. In addressing the issue of racism and sexism in contemporary Tunisia in the film, Amari said “I also wanted to tell the story of Black women in Tunisia, because I felt they are somehow forgotten.”

Nabil Ayouch (b. 1 April, 1969) is a French-Moroccan director, screenwriter and producer. His films include Horses of God (2012) a drama about the 2003 Casablanca bombings and Morocco’s submission for the Best International Film at the Oscars, and Casablanca Beats (2021) centered around a group of young Moroccans who find their passion in hip-hop. It was the first Moroccan film to compete for a Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2022, The Blue Caftan which he co-wrote with his director-wife Maryam Touzani was shortlisted for Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards.

Samuel Bazawule (b, 19 April 1982), known professionally as Blitz Bazawule and Blitz the Ambassador, is a Ghanaian filmmaker, author, visual artist, rapper, singer-songwriter, and record producer. Blitz made his debut as a film director debut with The Burial of Kojo (2018), which won Best First Feature Film by a Director at the 15th Africa Movie Academy Awards and the Grand Nile Prize at the Luxor African Film Festival. He directed the musical film adaptation The Color Purple in 2023 and is currently developing a six-episode miniseries based on his novel The Scent of Burnt Flowers about an African American fugitive couple seeking refuge in Ghana.