01 / Uganda, Rwanda
A voice over the film
Narrators retell foreign films live in the local language, with their own jokes and commentary. The narrator, not the director, is the name that sells.
UgandaVideo jockeys (VJs) such as VJ Junior and VJ Jjingo dub foreign films into Luganda with their own jokes and commentary; distributors say a film doesn't sell without a VJ.
How VJs translate and spice up movies (The Observer, Uganda) · Wikipedia: Cinema of Uganda
RwandaAgasobanuye: narrators dub foreign films into Kinyarwanda with their own humorous commentary, sold in video libraries and roadside kiosks — Rwanda's counterpart to Uganda's VJs.
Agasobanuye and Yanga (Mount Kenya University Rwanda student magazine)
02 / Tanzania, Cuba
Hand to hand
Films travel on hard drives, DVDs and pay-TV rather than websites — copied, swapped and sold in kiosks.
TanzaniaSwahili films circulate on DVD and pay-TV, notably Azam's Sinema Zetu channel, rather than on websites.
CubaEl Paquete Semanal — a weekly bundle of about a terabyte of films, series and music, copied from hard drive to hard drive — was for years the main way to get new content; the latest reporting we found is from 2018–19.
Most Cubans don't have internet, but they have El Paquete (il manifesto)
03 / Ukraine, Russia, Iran
Messaging apps
Telegram channels and Instagram pages do the work of film magazines: news, recommendations and, often, the films themselves.
UkraineTelegram is the main news source for about half of Ukrainians (51% in a 2025 survey), and film news and recommendations travel there too.
Half of Ukrainians rely on Telegram as their primary news source (Ukrainska Pravda, 2025)
RussiaTelegram film channels — critics, curated picks, industry news — and Kinopoisk's own bot are a common way to choose what to watch.
IranPersian Telegram channels for films and series reach hundreds of thousands of subscribers each, although Telegram has been officially blocked since 2018 and is used through VPNs.
TGStat: Iran's video and film Telegram channels by reach (live) · Iran bans Telegram nationwide (RSF)
04 / Nigeria, Ethiopia, Pakistan
YouTube as the cinema
New films and series premiere on producers' and broadcasters' own YouTube channels, free for anyone with data.
NigeriaYouTube is Nollywood's biggest free outlet: producers premiere new films on their own channels, and many viewers now prefer it to paid streaming.
Nigerians are ditching streaming platforms for YouTube (TechCabal, 2025)
EthiopiaNew Amharic films reach YouTube soon after their cinema run — the main way the diaspora watches them.
Ethiopia's film industry plays catch-up to streaming (Shega, 2025)
PakistanPakistani TV dramas live on the broadcasters' YouTube channels: Har Pal Geo and ARY Digital have tens of millions of subscribers, and several dramas have passed a billion views.
Wikipedia: List of most-viewed Pakistani YouTube videos · Social Blade: top Pakistani YouTube channels (live)
About this story
- Each country here has an “informal channels” note in the CineMundi index, with its source. These channels are described but not linked, because many of them share films without the rights holders' permission.
- Everywhere, a growing share of recommendations also comes from TikTok and YouTube critics; this story covers the countries where an off-the-web channel is the main one.
- Know a channel we've missed? It belongs in the index — that is the kind of correction we want.
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