Encounters 2021: Zinder

Every year since our founding in 2010, The Bioscope has proudly hosted screenings of The Encounters Documentary Film Festival. Always a highlight in our calendar, the festival returns this year with limited physical screenings at The Bioscope from 11-20 June. Tickets are R70. For more information on the festival as a whole, please visit encounters.co.za

ZINDER

Directed by: Aicha Macky. (Niger | France | Germany). Dur: 1h 12 mins.

Located in the heart of the Sahel, Zinder is Niger’s second largest city and home to numerous unemployed youths who are swelling the ranks of violent gangs. Director Aïcha Macky returns to her hometown, specifically the marginalised district of Kara-Kara where she was born and which is the epicentre of the violence, to explore the origins of the radicalisation that is spreading through Zinder, and the prospects for young men escaping it. With remarkable access to an otherwise closed world – and with mutual trust from the film’s protagonists – this sensitively made film documents the vicious circle of hopelessness and radicalisation, as well as the ways in which people break out of gang life. In the process, Macky reveals the survival strategies of the neglected youth of the area, and gives them a voice.

COVID POLICY AND PROCEDURE.

The new Bioscope location is set to be a 47 seater cinema. We are however selling far less in order for there to be space to sit apart from other members of the public. We ask you to please keep your mask on the entire time within the cinema premises. Drinks and snacks will be on sale and can be consumed during the film, but please consider those around you when your mask is off for this. 44 Stanley is largely an open air shopping centre, and The Bioscope has a great outside space directly outside the cinema that public can make use of. Within the cinema, we will also make use of temperature reading, air filtering, and constant cleaning to make sure that The Bioscope remains a safe and hygienic experience.

After purchasing tickets, if you experience any COVID related symptoms, or come into contact with anyone who has tested positive, we ask you to please not attend the screening. Please understand that The Bioscope will not be able to refund you this ticket. We are happy however for you to give your ticket to someone else that can attend. If this is not possible, we would be happy to exchange your ticket for a future screening/event. This can all be coordinated via email at [email protected]