The 43rd Tehran International Short Film Festival runs from 17th to 22nd October, 2026.
By Adedamola Jones Adedayo
A slate of 16 African films is set to screen as part of African Horizons, a special programme showcasing works from different generations and regions of the continent, at the 43rd Tehran International Short Film Festival, scheduled to take place in October this year.
The programme is curated by Abidjan-based Senegalese filmmaker and cinephile Hussein Dembel Sow, who will also serve on the festival’s jury. African Horizons will be presented outside the competition, offering Iranian audiences an opportunity to discover a diverse selection of African cinema.
The selection reaches back to the works of pioneering Senegalese filmmakers Ousmane Sembène and Djibril Diop Mambéty, while also highlighting contemporary voices such as Tanzanian filmmaker Walt Mzengi Corey, Nigerian-British filmmaker Akinola Davies Jr., and South African filmmaker Jason Adam, and other emerging voices from across the continent and its diaspora.
The programme opens a window into the diversity of African short filmmaking, moving between stories of tradition and modernity, family and community, displacement and belonging, political realities, childhood, memory and the everyday experiences that define humanity across African societies.
Among the films in the selection is Ousmane Sembène’s Borom Sarret (1963), a film that follows the daily journey of a horse-cart driver navigating the hardships of life in Dakar. Widely considered one of the foundational works in African cinema, the film highlights Sembène’s interest in using cinema to interrogate class, poverty, colonial legacy and the place of ordinary people in society. It is joined by another landmark Senegalese work, Djibril Diop Mambéty’s Le Franc (1994), a comical piece about a man who wins a lottery ticket but struggles to cash it. Both works offer a glimpse into the political and social imaginations of two of Senegal’s most iconic filmmakers.
The selection also includes The Tomb (1977) by Eltayeb Mahdi, a Sudanese filmmaker and founding member of the Sudanese Film Group, which tells the story of a charlatan with acclaimed healing powers, exploring questions of blind submission and authority. Another Sudanese filmmaker Suzannah Mirghani offers a different portrait of Sudanese society through Al-Sit (2020), which is about a teenage girl facing an arranged marriage in a cotton-farming village in Sudan, raising questions around marriage, family expectations, womanhood, social pressure and longstanding traditions.
The festival’s engagement with traditions continues in Ghanaian-American filmmaker Akosua Adoma Owusu’s Kwaku Ananse (2013), a story drawn from the West African folklore figure Ananse, while combining myth, memory, and concerns of cultural identity. Meanwhile, Tanzanian filmmaker Amil Shivji’s Shoeshine (2013) turns to Dar es Salaam with the light-hearted narrative of a shoe shiner sharing his daily life with students, a tea seller and a political official.
Other films included in the lineup are Rwandan filmmaker Samuel Ishimwe’s Imfura (2017), Tunisian-Canadian filmmaker Meryam Joobeur’s Brotherhood (2018), British-Nigerian filmmaker Akinola Davies Jr.’s Lizard (2020), French filmmaker of Moroccan background Jawahine Zentar’s Sur la tombe de mon père (2022), Ghanaian-American filmmaker Amartei Armar’s Tsutsuɛ (2022), Somali-Austrian filmmaker Mo Harawe’s Will My Parents Come to See Me (2022), Swiss-Rwandan filmmaker and artist Kantarama Gahigiri’s Terra Mater – Mother Land (2023), Tanzanian-born filmmaker Walt Mzengi Corey’s Katope (2023), and South African filmmakers Jason Adam Maselle’s Punter (2024) and Cindy Lee’s The Last Ranger (2024).
The 43rd Tehran International Short Film Festival runs from 17th to 22nd October, 2026.