The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund before the tribunal! Director Abderrahmane Sissako’s Bamako is one of the most notable African films of the early 2000’s. In an impoverished neighborhood in Mali’s capital Bamako – apparently in Sissako’s late father’s own backyard – a peculiar, “improvised” yet convincingly authentic trial plays out – with globalization in the hot seat.
While legal scholars donning the appropriate garb for the occasion as well as representatives of exploited Africa debate, Sissako’s lens fluidly follows the surrounding life and the marital strife of bar singer Melé and her husband Chaka, an ordinary couple living in the house outside of which the trial is held. At the plaintiff’s podium, mostly “real” people are seen – memorable figures include Mali’s Minister of Culture, an older farmer delivering his testimony in the form of a kind of rap, and a taciturn teacher.
Sissako delivers his critique of neocolonialism in no unclear terms, but Bamako also turns a critical eye toward the African elite. The director’s familiar humor and the brilliant, spontaneous camerawork of the framing sequences make the film a joy to watch, culminating in a farcical spaghetti Western interlude, “Death in Timbuktu”, starring, among others, Danny Glover and Palestinian director Elia Suleiman, the latter of whom paid a visit to our festival in 2007.
Timo Malmi