this evenings watch, a masterpice from bulgaria, we were young (1961) a tale of antifascism in ww2 among a group of youths, we see this ultimately naïve and not particularly competent group torn apart by suspicions in such a way as leads two of them to their deaths at the hands of the fascists

on letterboxd, when i reply to someone in the comments of a review, unfortunately i have no way of ensuring they are aware they have received a reply, as, particularly if they follow hundreds of people, it will get lost in the noise very fast there needs to be a way to @ your mutuals on lb,

we return to africa this week, and specifically burkina faso, for yam daabo (1987) dir. idrissa ouédraogo sadly this film is very insubstantial, the plot is thin, the characters lightly drawn, and it is hard to connect with them and the tale of bintou's relationship troubles

i think my favourite thing about bsky is how functional its architecture is ol' reliable we call it, on account of the fact it never breaks

i will fully admit, i had no strong opinions about many of these categories, as they're not really something i consider (like favourite antagonist, most of the games i play don't even have antagonists) but, everyone was having fun with this, so i decided to give it a spin limit of one nom per game

my computers been bluescreening a lot recently (three times today even) so i have downloaded a terabyte of ram, fingers crossed this puts it on the straight and narrow

i will fully admit, i had no strong opinions about many of these categories, as they're not really something i consider (like favourite antagonist, most of the games i play don't even have antagonists) but, everyone was having fun with this, so i decided to give it a spin limit of one nom per game

lmao, i'm always getting those two muddled up

claims to be pro life

this is the first burkinabe film i've seen, let's add it to it to the map!

we return to africa this week, and specifically burkina faso, for yam daabo (1987) dir. idrissa ouédraogo sadly this film is very insubstantial, the plot is thin, the characters lightly drawn, and it is hard to connect with them and the tale of bintou's relationship troubles

okay, i took a few days off from african capitals coming back, i got 95%, let's fucking gooooo the fuckups equa-guinea - malabo gabon - libreville guinea - conakry

we are 100 days in 2026 and i am 100 nightly workouts into 2026 let's keep it up!!

it feels like only a matter of time before whoever runs this place post-jay decides to pull the plug on the platform it didn't turn out to be the crypto right-liberterian paradise they were hoping to construct it's a den of centrists through to radical leftists, not ideal!

let's see how many of these i can do off the cuff today, my guesses praia - cabo verde nouakchott - mauritania yamoussoukro - côte d'ivore lomé - togo cotonou - benin malabo - equatorial guinea moroni - comoros gitega - burundi dodoma - tanzania lilongwe - malawi

had a spin at an african capitals quiz, a simpler style where you have to pair the name tag to the city, you get one try per dot on the mapl, there were plenty that i fucked up that i knew n'djamena, pretoria, brazzaville, freetown, niamey, libreville, conakry but overall, not the worst showing

i have failed the nation of brasil somehow two of the easiest states names to remember, a literal pair of them, escaped my recollection

it's days like yesterday that make you realise when it happens is going to be the most special day in the history of the internet

thank god he's a coward as well as a monster

the us empire is like a rabid dog that needs to be put down before it's too late

article i wrote a long time ago has been translated into japanese, that's pretty fucking sweet

tonight's watch, mafricarch is over, so we're taking a trip to italia for bitter rice (1949) an interesting fusion between neorealist cinema and a melodrama, this film is at it's best in it's neorealist moments, following the women farming rice, and living among one another

god help me i'm getting into obscure regional variants of chess again come to me sittuyin, makruk, makpong, janggi... let me absorb you

cinema is so cool, i wish it was real

tonight's watch, mafricarch is over, so we're taking a trip to italia for bitter rice (1949) an interesting fusion between neorealist cinema and a melodrama, this film is at it's best in it's neorealist moments, following the women farming rice, and living among one another

it's a default font, so falls under the rubric of 'graphic design is my passion' but i vibe with it

my closing thoughts on mafricarch 2026

mafricarch 2026 film 12 l'arbre de l'authenticité - dir. sammy baloji [république démocratique du congo] we end our month of african cinema, on one more exploration of colonialism, this is not really a tale of anti-colonial violence though, the resistance we see here is of a more peaceful sort

mafricarch has been a real pleasure, glad i decided to push the boat out a bit in it, we have had an opportunity to see my first film forthe countries of: algeria, tunisia, libya, egypt, eritrea, guiné-bissau, guinea-ecuatorial, são tomé e príncipe and the république centrafricaine!!

this is my first film, but definitely not last, from the république démocratique du congo, let us add it to the map!

mafricarch 2026 film 12 l'arbre de l'authenticité - dir. sammy baloji [république démocratique du congo] we end our month of african cinema, on one more exploration of colonialism, this is not really a tale of anti-colonial violence though, the resistance we see here is of a more peaceful sort

much like communism, we are inevitable

this is the first bissau-guinéan film i've seen let's add it to the world map!!

mafricarch 2026 film 11 o regresso de amílcar cabral (1976) dir. sana na n'hada, flora gomes, joé bolama, djalma fetterman, josefina lopes crato [guiné-bissau] another fine revolutionary work, this one a testament to the spirit of anti-colonial struggle letterboxd.com/sovietblobfi...

mafricarch enters its final act total views of the films on letterboxd across all four films... 3748, of which 2900 are viewers of chronique des années de braise

What the US is purposefully doing to Cuba should be considered genocide.

i had already marked off algeria on my world map after having watched the battle of algiers but this is the first algerian film i've watched, so i can now feel i have it marked off honestly

mafricarch 2026 film 10 chroniques des années de braise (1975) dir. mohammed lakhdar-hamina a beautiful propaganda film in the mould of soy cuba, this will fill you with both anger at the colonial domination of the french, and also inspire you to action

i tried a significantly harder 'name all the countries quiz' this one of the world in 1789 i did not do well!

i still got it... scientists are trying to figure out what the 'it' is that i've got, but so far no luck

i'm playing a flag quiz game to see how rusty i've gotten and the flag of bolivia completely threw me since when has it been a red green yellow tricolour?

this is my first tunisian film! let's add it to the map!! that completes north africa, though, i need to watch another algerian film to truly cross off the country in my books, as battle of algiers doesn't count by my modern reckoning

mafricarch 2027 film 9 zohra (1922) dir. albert samama chikly [tunisia] banger, and it's also the oldest piece of african cinema, so it's a banger with fucking history a short little piece of ethnography, made by a man of tunis concerning the amazigh letterboxd.com/sovietblobfi...

this was egypts first film, and it's my first egyptian film, how appropriate :) let's add it to the map

mafricarch 2026 film 8 barsoum looking for a job (1923) dir. mohamed bayoumi [egypt] i was hoping to watch the film yam daabo this evening from burkina faso, but i ran into problems with the discs region locking 🤮 so, instead, i watched the first ever egyptian film, and second ever african film!!

this is my first film from the república de guinea ecuatorial! there may be more in my future... but for now, let's add it to the map!!

mafricarch 2026 film 7 maría adá (2012) dir. rubén monsuy ndong andeme [república de guinea ecuatorial] the acting is amateurish, and the plot nonsensical but, they're clearly having a great deal of fun, and there is a lot of heart in this film, the direction shows real promise

mafricarch 2026 film 6 timbuktu (2014) dir. abderrahmane sissako [mali] a truly beautiful film, covering a truly beautiful city, timbuktu, which seems like a true melting pot, in terms of languages alone, we have five in this film unfortunately daesh has conquered the city, and has some plans

mafricarch 2026 film 6 timbuktu (2014) dir. abderrahmane sissako [mali] a truly beautiful film, covering a truly beautiful city, timbuktu, which seems like a true melting pot, in terms of languages alone, we have five in this film unfortunately daesh has conquered the city, and has some plans