{"id":31216,"date":"2026-05-22T09:17:56","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T06:17:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/msfilmfestival.fi\/?post_type=movies&p=31216"},"modified":"2026-05-22T17:28:38","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T14:28:38","slug":"life-on-earth","status":"publish","type":"movies","link":"https:\/\/msfilmfestival.fi\/en\/movies\/life-on-earth\/","title":{"rendered":"Life on Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Abderrahmane Sissako<\/a> was responsible for the African contribution to the film series <\/span>2000, Seen By\u2026<\/span><\/i>, television channel ARTE\u2019s project celebrating the turn of the millennium. In the project, ten renowned directors were tasked with envisioning how the events of the millennium celebrations might play out. Sissako\u2019s wonderfully warm and gentle visual poem about the unhurried comings and goings of a village in Mali is the true gem of ARTE\u2019s project \u2013 which is no small praise, considering that some of the other directors involved included the likes of Walter Salles, Ildik\u00f3 Enyedi, Tsai Ming-liang, Laurent Cantet, and Hal Hartley.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the lead role, Sissako<\/a> himself plays a man living in Europe who writes a letter home to his father before making the journey back to visit him in his destitute home village in Mali. As the turn of the millennium approaches, the village\u2019s only phone acts as a connection to a grandstanding and materialistic Europe. Meanwhile, bathed in beautiful light, the village continues its arrestingly quiet day-to-day existence. The significance of time and being present in the moment is brought to the forefront.<\/span><\/p>\n

With delightful absurdity, a continuous stream of bikes, donkeys and other passers-by seems to constantly parade across the screen. <\/span>Life on Earth<\/span><\/i> is a film grand in its smallness \u2013 a film about a way of life, and the relativity of life\u2019s essentials.<\/span><\/p>\n

Timo Malmi<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Abderrahmane Sissako was responsible for the African contribution to the film series 2000, Seen By\u2026, television channel ARTE\u2019s project celebrating the turn of the millennium. In the project, ten renowned directors were tasked with envisioning how the events of the millennium celebrations might play out. Sissako\u2019s wonderfully warm and gentle visual poem about the unhurried… View Article<\/a>","protected":false},"featured_media":31214,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-31216","movies","type-movies","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","filters-abderrahmane-sissako","filters-special-guests-films","filters-subtitles-in-english-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLife on Earth — Midnight Sun Film Festival<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Abderrahmane Sissako was responsible for the African contribution to the film series 2000, Seen By\u2026, television channel ARTE\u2019s project celebrating the turn of the millennium. In the project, ten renowned directors were tasked with envisioning how the events of the millennium celebrations might play out. Sissako\u2019s wonderfully warm and gentle visual poem about the unhurried comings and goings of a village in Mali is the true gem of ARTE\u2019s project \u2013 which is no small praise, considering that some of the other directors involved included the likes of Walter Salles, Ildik\u00f3 Enyedi, Tsai Ming-liang, Laurent Cantet, and Hal Hartley.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/msfilmfestival.fi\/en\/movies\/life-on-earth\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Life on Earth — Midnight Sun Film Festival\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Abderrahmane Sissako was responsible for the African contribution to the film series 2000, Seen By\u2026, television channel ARTE\u2019s project celebrating the turn of the millennium. 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