‘Sarraounia’ to Open Pan African Festival

Opening the Pan African Film Festival Thursday at 8:30 p.m. at the Sunset 5 is Med Hondo’s wry, witty and visually dazzling “Sarraounia,” a turn-of-the-century epic that takes its title from a legendary Central African warrior queen (Al Keita) who proves far more resourceful than a group of pompous French invaders could ever imagine; it boasts wonderful music, which seems typical of the festival films.

Among the opening weekend’s offerings available for preview are Zimbabwe’s “Neria” (Friday at 3:25 p.m., Sunday at 7:40 p.m. in Theater I) and Ghana’s “Heritage Africa” (Saturday at 9:25 p.m. in Theater II). Directed by Godwin Mawuru (in his feature debut) and written by Tsitsi Dangarembga, “Neria” is unabashedly an educational drama sustained by a strong, understated performance by Jesesi Mungoshi in the title role as a young widow who gradually learns to assert herself when her brother-in-law (Dominic J. Kanaventi) greedily exploits tradition by confiscating his brother’s family’s money and property.

“Neria” suggests that with an enlightened spirit of give-and-take tradition and change can in fact accommodate each other. Both films have been big, award-laden box-office successes in their native lands.

Kwaw Ansah’s “Heritage Africa” is crude, even amateurish, yet accrues considerable power as a portrait of a black man appointed a district commissioner (during the late colonial era) whose pompous, zealous obsession to emulate whites in every way possible all but destroys him. In this demanding part, Kofi Bucknor, whose filmmaking experience had heretofore been in production, grows into his role before our eyes.

Among the 30 films screening during opening weekend is Mohamed Lakhdar Hamina’s ambitious, meticulously detailed and visually stunning “Chronicle of the Years of Embers” (screening Friday at 4:10 p.m. in Theater II), a three-hour epic tracing from 1939 the growing discontent with French colonial rule, which exploded in the Algerian revolution in November, 1954.

Another prize-winner is Wendell B. Harris Jr.’s ambitious “Chameleon Street” (Friday at 7:40 p.m. in Theater I), based on a true story of a man caught up in a series of manipulations and impersonations.

The festival runs through Oct. 22. Information: (213) 896-8221.