Tambay Obenson Profile picture
Founded Shadow & Act LLC, 2009. Sold to Blavity Inc, 2017. Staff writer at IndieWire 2018-2022. Now building @akorokoafrica, and African cinema platform!

Feb 15, 2023, 9 tweets

On my way...! ✈️✈️✈️ #Berlinale #EFM #AkorokoAtBerlinale

A two-for-two special... #Berlinale2023 begins. #AkorokoAtBerlinale

#Berlinale2023: KILL BOKSOON. Assassin (and single mom) in the twilight years of her career. Secrets and lies abound. Action is JOHN WICK + THE MATRIX, on steroids. Punctuated by lengthy existential chatter, ultimately a last man standing affair. Jeon Do-yeon kills it. Literally.

#Berlinale2023: AI: AFRICAN INTELLIGENCE. Scholar Manthia Diawara contends with what AI might mean for Africa and its richly diverse cultures. Here, intelligence is measured by life experience. The message: f*ck your zeroes and ones. African elders are a goldmine. Cherish them.

#Berlinale2023: ALL THE COLOURS OF THE WORLD ARE BETWEEN BLACK AND WHITE. Coming-of-age tale about identity set in a country (Nigeria) that itself is coming of age RE *taboo* themes the film tenderly tackles. An understated romance as IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE — minus the visual glam.

ALL THE COLOURS OF THE WORLD ARE BETWEEN BLACK AND WHITE director Babatunde Apalowo post-screening clip: on being a young, *Neo*-Nigerian filmmaker. I recorded the entire Q&A but won't share yet. It'll spoil the film for others. This was its world premiere. #AkorokoAtBerlinale

#Berlinale2023: THE SURVIVAL OF KINDNESS. Rolf de Heer may have a new muse in Congolese actress Mwajemi Hussein who does the heavy lifting in this confounding, stark neo-western. Like de Heer's David Gulpilil characters, Hussein's performance is all countenance and body language.

Will likely provoke. At the very least, it will challenge. Thematically dense, I'm still not entirely certain what I feel about it. Repeat viewings may be rewarding. Or may not. But repeat viewings are a guarantee! #AkorokoAtBerlinale

#Berlinale2023: DISCO BOY. Could've been a fever dream triptych: a wannabe French legionnaire; a Nigerian fighting Big Oil in the Delta; his sister, a siren with dreams of Italy. Instead, the latter two become near mythical creatures through whom the legionnaire finds redemption.

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