The Peasant Film Programme

Friday 1 May, 16.00
Rijksakademie Reading Room
Entrance free, RSVP here.

‘The Peasant Film Programme’ is convened by artist and Rijksakademie alum Jackie Karuti. It emerged from an archival cinema project by the Colonial Film Unit (CFU), and was referenced by Karuti during her 2025 Open Studios project at the Rijksakademie. Three films from the archive will be presented and supplemented by five other films that address the plight of peasants, as well as related themes such as work, progress, industrialisation, measurement, alienation, and labour in cinema.

The screenings will take place on 1 May 2026. The date is meant to coincide with what is commonly known as labour day or workers day; a global date that commemorates the labour movement and working-class while honouring workers' rights and achievements. Discussions with the audience will be held during and after the screenings.

15.30
Doors Open

16.00–16.10
Introduction by Jackie Karuti

16.10–16.18
Nairobi, 1950
Production: Colonial Film Unit
8 min | English language spoken | No subtitles

Nairobi is a travelogue of everyday life in Nairobi, Kenya, concluding with the events of the last two days of March 1950 when Nairobi was granted a Royal Charter and became a city. 31^st March 1950 also marks the day on which the Colonial Film Unit’s East African operations were closed down.

16.20-16.29
African Peasant Farms, The Kingolwira Experiment, 1936
Production: The Bantu Educational Kinema Experiment (BEKE)
9 min | Silent film

The film shows a practical experiment to establish a new African settlement in a tsetse-fly infested region. Early farming methods, land acquisition and principles of crop rotation are also explained.

16.30–16.38
The Two Farmers, 1948
Production: Central African Film Unit (CAFU)
18 min | English language spoken | No subtitles

The film was produced to encourage farmers to take the advice of Government Agricultural officers. The film introduces two poor neighbouring farmers, where one is keen to improve his crop and listens to the advice of the agricultural officer, while the other is lazy and ignores all advice. The keen one improves his crop, the other's crop remains poor.

16.45–17.15
Ma’loul Celebrates Its Destruction, 1984
Dir. Michel Khleifi
Palestine, Belgium
30 min | English subtitles

Ma’loul is a Palestinian village in Galilee which was destroyed by the Israeli armed forces in 1948. The former inhabitants are only allowed to visit once a year, on the anniversary of Israel’s independence, and have developed a new tradition: they have a picnic on the very site of the destroyed village. The film uses poignant images of bombardments, destroyed buildings, and disfigured people to commemorate the countless Palestinian villages that have been erased from the map.

17.15–17.30
Discussion + short break

17.35–17.46
Parabola d’oro (Golden Parable), 1955
Dir. Vittorio De Seta
10 min | Minimal dialogue | No subtitles

A calm pastoral idyll focusing on a wheat harvest during the days golden hour.

18.00–18.40
Scuola senza fine (School Without End), 1983
Dir. Adriana Monti
40 min | English subtitles

A group of women following the worker-union-sponsored “150 hours” course to complete their secondary school education are mentored by feminist, activist, and writer Lea Melandri. Adriana Monti follows the women as they reconsider their role as housewives and the effects of this type of political education on their self-narration.

18.40–19.00
Discussion