When African stories come alive - Review of Seven Resilient Women

There is something about walking into a room full of stories you didn’t know you needed. 

I first met Tina (Celestina Aleobua) and Ella Chikezie the week before at Kitale Film Week.

The kind of meeting where you exchange ideas as you exchange names, where the conversation just flows because you recognise something familiar in each other’s fire.

So when Seven Resilient Women landed at Unseen Nairobi the following Wednesday, it already felt like showing up for friends. 

The evening was intimate. Curated by Tina herself alongside journalist and curator Wanjeri Gakuru, and presented by That Afrikan Productions in partnership with FlyGrade Media and Unseen Nairobi, the screening brought together seven short films that had already premiered in Lagos and Los Angeles. 

And honestly? I loved them all. 

What I was not expecting was how many emotions would move through that room. Laughter that erupted out of nowhere and rolled across the crowd when something landed exactly right. Gasps. Silence so full you could hear people breathing.

The disbelief and hurt in Ekún Ìyàwó hit the room like a wave. Leaving Ikorodu in 1999 carried a weight that sat with us long after the screen went dark.

There were tears. There was joy. This was not a solemn evening of watching quietly. It was alive. 

Leaving Ikorodu in 1999 set the tone beautifully. The Incredible Sensational Fiancée of Sèyí Àjàyí, directed by Abbesi Akhamie, was visually stunning, the colour work was gorgeous, rich and deliberate, and the script was tight and so well crafted. Ekún Ìyàwó: A Tale of a Runaway Bride stayed with me for the rawness of its truth.

Iseda by David Ikani was a cinematographic gift, the kind of film where every frame feels considered and you want to pause and sit inside the image. 

These films carried truths that do not always get spoken about, at least not in my circles. Things that happen, things that women carry, that rarely find their way into open conversation.

And I loved that there was space and time for that here. That a room full of strangers could sit together and witness what is usually kept quiet, and feel less alone for it.

Then Being You by Minenhle Luthuli brought sobs and tightened my throat. Its exploration of forgiveness and redemption hit somewhere deep and quiet. The room shifted. You could feel everyone slowly letting go. 

Ella’s film, In Her Shoes, was raw and gut wrenching. It gave a face, a name, and a space to African neurodivergent children and their families in a way I have rarely seen on screen.

It did not explain or apologise. It just showed up with the truth, and that honesty made it powerful. 

That impact was echoed by Dr Eyman Osman (Art curator and consultant), who described Seven Resilient Women as “a deeply moving and thoughtfully curated experience, bringing together stories of courage, creativity, and quiet determination.

Each narrative is distinct, yet collectively they offer a powerful reflection on contemporary African womanhood.”

She speaks especially to the emotional weight of Ella’s work, noting how profoundly meaningful it is to see the lived realities of neurodivergent children and their families treated not as marginal, but as central, complex, and worthy of deep attention.

It is that kind of visibility, rare, necessary, and handled with care, that lingers. And Tina, When Will You Marry? closed the evening with the perfect landing. So relatable.

So warm. The humour was woven in with such care that you found yourself laughing and nodding at the same time, recognising your own life in the question that every African woman has heard a thousand times. 

As an artist, I am always looking for how stories are told visually, how the frame holds a woman, how light falls on skin, how silence carries meaning.

These filmmakers understand that. They understand that the African woman story is not singular. It is not one geography, one struggle, one triumph.

It is layered and textured and vast. And this curation honoured that vastness without flattening it. Dr Eyman Osman also reflects on the sincerity that runs through the programme.

The purposeful use of vibrant colour, the clarity of storytelling, and the way these films feel less like distant narratives and more like lived realities shared with beauty and grace. It is this honesty that creates space not just for reflection, but for recognition.

But beyond the screen, what made this evening stay with me was the energy in the room and the company around me.

Hanging out with Tina and Ella felt like fuel. We talked about their time in small town Kenya, the similarities and differences with Nigeria, how place shapes the stories you tell and the ones you hold back.

The kind of conversations where someone’s passion sparks something in your own work. Where you leave feeling not just inspired, but encouraged. Like the work you are doing matters, and the women doing it alongside you see you. 

Seven Resilient Women is more than a screening title. It is a statement about what African cinema can hold when women are both in front of and behind the camera. When the stories are chosen with care. When the room is built with intention. 

I walked out of Unseen that night carrying something warm. The kind of warmth that comes from being in the right room, at the right time, with the right people. And still smiling.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Pulse as its publisher.