Cycles

Women's struggles

23 films

Here is a selection of French and African films that address the issues of feminism and women's fight to defend their rights. Organizing a screening dealing with these issues will raise spectators' awareness of the inequalities between the sexes and the way in which cinema can bear witness to women's struggles.

Women's struggles
  • Literary adaptation, Drama
  • 2023
  • 1h45
by Valérie Donzelli

When Blanche Renard meets Greg Lamoureux, she believes she has found the one. The ties that bind them grow rapidly; they are caught up in a great passion. Ignoring her fears, Blanche abandons her family and her twin sister, Rose, with dreams of reinventing herself – and little by little finds herself caught in the grip of a deeply possessive and dangerous man. A man whose true nature she is too ashamed, too afraid, to reveal. There are only two ways out. Either his victim will break, or she will free herself...

  • Drama
  • 2022
  • 1h24
by Emmanuelle Nicot

Although Dalva is 12, she dresses, wears make-up and lives like a woman. One evening, she’s suddenly taken away from a father’s house. Dumbfounded and outraged at first, she later meets Jayden, a social worker, and Samia, a teen with a temper. A new life seems to start for Dalva, that of a girl her age.

  • Comedy-drama, Historical film
  • 2022
  • 1h36
by Virginie Verrier

Marinette Pichon is one of the world’s greatest stars of football, having held for almost two decades the record for the number of goals and caps for the French team (men/women combined), before becoming a FIFA Legend by being the first French player to have a career in the US. Pioneer of French women’s soccer, the film follows her fight to spread awareness on women’s rights in sport. A path full of pitfalls, from a childhood ravaged by an alcoholic and violent father to the heavy burden of coming out in an era where there is no such thing as LGBTQ+ rights. Her success in sport will fuel her desire to make a difference in the recognition of French women’s soccer, homosexuality, and equal opportunity. It is the story of a woman’s life, a fighter, an uncompromising ode to freedom, to surpassing oneself.

  • Drama, Literary adaptation
  • 2022
  • 1h58
by Vanessa Filho

Paris, 1985. Vanessa is thirteen when she meets Gabriel Matzneff. A very smart and manipulative man, the fifty-year-old renowned writer seduces the young girl. The adolescent becomes the lover and muse of a man celebrated by the cultural and political establishment. Losing herself in the relationship, she gradually starts to realize how destructive and anormal the situation is, until she finally sees Gabriel Matzneff for the predator he really is. Vanessa now has a long journey to free herself from his influence and heal from her suffering…

  • Drama
  • 2021
  • 1h59
by Blandine Lenoir

A countryside village in France, 1974. When she accidentally becomes pregnant, Annie, a working mother of two teenagers, meets with the Movement for the Liberation of Abortion and Contraception (MLAC); doctors and women who perform illegal abortions in the public eye, practicing a free, safe and respectful method. Gradually Annie will join their battle, which will bring a new meaning to her life.

  • Drama
  • 2020
  • 1h30
by Charlène Favier

Lyz, 15 years old, has just joined a prestigious ski school in Bourg-Saint-Maurice. Fred, ex-champion and now coach, decides to bet everything on his new recruit. Galvanized by his support, Lyz invests her whole body, physically and emotionally. She has a string of successes but quickly falls under Fred's absolute control...

  • 2014
  • 13min
by Sarah Saidan

Vida is a young Iranian lifeguard. Popular on her team, she is determined to fight in order to be the one to participate in an international competition in Australia. However, when Sareh who is as fast and talented as her, joins the team, Vida will have to face an unexpected situation.

  • Comedy-drama, Biopic
  • 2021
  • 4min
by Valentine Zhang

Alice sneaks out of the family home to take part in a guerilla political flyposting campaign.

  • Comedy-drama
  • 2021
  • 1h23
by Luàna Bajrami

Somewhere in Kosovo, in a small remote village, three young women see their dreams and ambitions stifled. In their quest for independence, nothing can stop them: time to let the lionesses roar.

  • 2021
  • 1h25
by Gilles Perret and François Ruffin

In this new journey, Ruffin & Perret embarks us across France to meet caretakers at the front lines during the current Covid-19 crises. Those people, mostly women, who give their lives, their time and often their health to help and care for elders, disabled and left out are in fact left aside by the French social regulations. No minimum wage, no work-time limitation, no social recognition force them to stand up for their basic rights!

  • Comedy-drama
  • 2021
  • 1h25
by Eric Gravel

Marie goes to great lengths to raise her two children in the countryside while keeping her job in a Parisian luxury hotel. When she finally gets a job interview for a position she had long been hoping for, a national strike breaks out, paralyzing the public transport system. The fragile balance that Marie has established is jeopardized. Marie then sets off on a frantic race against time, at the risk of foundering.

  • Literary adaptation
  • 2021
  • 1h46
by Emmanuel Carrère

Marianne Winckler, a well-known author, goes to live in northern France to research for her new book on the subject of job insecurity. Without revealing her true identity, she gets hired as a cleaner, working with a group of other women. In this new role, she experiences financial instability and social invisibility first-hand. But she also discovers mutual assistance and solidarity, strong bonds shared by these behind-the-scenes working women.

  • Drama
  • 2019
  • 1h45
by Mounia Meddour

Algeria, 1990s. Nedjma, an 18 year-old student passionate about fashion design refuses to let the tragic events of the Algerian Civil War to keep her from experiencing a normal life and going out at night with her friend Wassila. As the social climate becomes more conservative, she rejects the new bans set by the radicals and decides to fight for her freedom and independence by putting up a fashion show.

  • Drama, Literary adaptation
  • 2018
  • 2h15
by Catherine Corsini

At the end of the 1950s, Rachel, a young office clerk living in a provincial town, meets Philippe, a well-educated man from a wealthy family. They share an intense but short-lived omance, from which a daughter is born. Over the next 50 years, their lives will be shaped by the unconditional love between a mother and her daughter, overshadowed by the impossible love of a woman for a man that rejects her, and of a daughter for an absent and abusive father.

  • Comedy-drama, Adventure, Young audience
  • 2018
  • 1h37
by Michel Ocelot

With the help of her delivery-boy friend, Dilili, a young Kanak, investigates a spate of mysterious kidnappings of young girls that is plaguing Belle Epoque Paris. In the course of her investigation she encounters a series of extraordinary characters, each of whom provides her with clues that will help her in her quest… After Kirikou and Azur & Asmar, Michel Ocelot returns with an enchanting new tale of brave young heroes, mysteries and discoveries, kidnappings and ordeals, extraordinary places and magical encounters, in which good must challenge dark forces and triumph.

  • 2010
  • 1h46
by Leïla Kilani

In Tangier, Badia and Imane, two young Moroccan girls of around twenty, walk in line amongst an army of workers who fill up the city with their coming and going back and forth. They both work in a shrimp-packaging factory, a difficult and humiliating job, where the strong odor of shrimp seeps into the pores of their skin. Badia's hands are busy but her head is idle; she perfumes herself with lies to wash away the shrimp smell and pretends to be someone else. Badia can flap her wings as much as she likes but she'll never fly.

  • Drama
  • 2021
  • 8min
by Maggie Kamal

On just another regular day in Cairo, Egypt, 18-year-old Nour gets a call from her brother that he will no longer be able to pick her up. To avoid being late to work, Nour has to take a microbus, not knowing that this trip will forever change her.

  • Drama
  • 2021
  • 1h32
by Salah Issaad

Soula, a young single mother rejected by her family in the name of honor, trying to survive, finds herself caught up in a spiral of violence. Willing to do anything for her baby daughter, along the roads of Algeria and through unfortunate encounters in a stunning journey, she heads towards her inevitable destiny.

  • Drama
  • 2018
  • 1h18
by Machérie Ekwa

Maki observes the sapeurs with a mixture of amusement and scorn. They’re all the family she has, this group of young men who use the streets of Kinshasa as their stage, showing off their wild mix of street chic and stolen designer fashions. Maki has been on the streets a long time and is married to Mbingazor, the gang’s boss. But at some point, the 19-year-old has had enough of this gang of boys, who are too busy getting high and drunk to do anything with themselves. Survival must be secured. The next time money for food runs out, Maki crosses paths with the much younger Acha. This newcomer is a fresh arrival in Kinshasa, and doesn’t yet know the rules. Spurred on by Acha’s beginner’s luck as a thief, the pair set off on an adventure together, which soon arouses Mbingazor’s jealousy.

  • 2018
  • 29min
by Leila N'deye Thiam

"Dans la salle no 1 du service de traumatologie de l'Hôpital communautaire de Bangui, dix femmes attendent de pouvoir enfin sortir et rentrer chez elles. Elles ont chacune vécu différentes expériences et difficultés. Alors qu'elles patientent, de nombreuses discussions s'engagent. Elles partagent soucis, espoirs, projets, mais aussi plaisanteries, rires et bonne humeur. Un film sur la Centrafrique contemporaine."

  • Biopic
  • 2017
  • 1h23
by Mohamed Siam

Amal is a feisty teenager growing up in postrevolution Egypt while they’re both undergoing a tremendous change. Within a constant political turmoil, Amal searches for her place, identity and sexuality in a patriarchal society. Amal, whose name literally translates to “hope”, is embarking on a 6 year compelling journey from childhood to adulthood. Along the way, she realizes her limited options as a woman living in an Arab police state.

  • 2006
  • 1h16
by François Verster

La Maison des mères. Quatre ans de la vie de Miché, d’abord enfant puis adolescente précoce, dans un township qui a pour cadre l'Afrique du Sud post-apartheid à Cape Town. Miché vit avec sa mère, ancienne activiste anti-apartheid aujourd'hui au chômage, HIV positive et enceinte de son troisième enfant, sa grand-mère et sa tante sous le même toit à Bonteheuwel. Déchirée entre l'envie d'échapper aux abus de la drogue et du gangstérisme qui caractérisent sa communauté, et l'envie de protéger ceux qu'elle aime, réussira-t-elle à sortir de la pauvreté, de la spirale de violence, de drogue et de criminalité qui l’entoure, chez elle et au-dehors ?

  • 2005
  • 52min
by Khady Sylla

Comment dire la folie ? Comment dire la souffrance qui l’accompagne ? En 1994, alors qu’elle basculait dans la maladie, Khady Sylla, la réalisatrice, a rencontré Aminta Ngom qui exhibait alors sa folie librement sans craindre la provocation. Pendant les années de souffrance de Khady, Aminta fut sa fenêtre sur le monde.

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