Sidney Sokhona

• Name — Sidney Sokhona • Born — 1952 • Occupation — filmmaker and politician • Notable Works — *Nationalité: Immigré [Nationality: Immigration], 1975 • Safrana ou le droit à la parole [Safrana, or The Right to Speak], 1977 • Awards — * Prix Georges Sadoul • Prix spécial du jury (exaequo avec Sejnane, d’Abdellatif Ben Ammar, Tunisie) Sidney Sokhona (born 1952) is a Mauritanian filmmaker and politician.

Sokhona shot his first feature film, Nationality: Immigration, from 1972 to 1975 as an immigrant in Paris. The film hybridised documentary and surreal fiction, with Sokhana himself playing the lead role of an immigrant living through a rent strike in the Rue Riquet. Sokhona wrote on African cinema for Cahiers du Cinéma, arguing that "Africa was colonized, and so is its cinema", and that African film-makers were beginning "to draw up battle plans for [....] cinematic independence".

• Nationalité: Immigré [Nationality: Immigration], 1975 • Safrana ou le droit à la parole [Safrana, or The Right to Speak], 1977