Bamako (2006)
…………………………………………………
Bamako Movie Review
Bamako is a 2006 Malian courtroom drama film directed by Abderrahmane Sissako. It is a stagey, but thematically important and insightful movie.
………………………………………………….
“We cannot throw Paul Wolfowitz into the Niger.
The caimans wouldn’t want him“
…………………………………………………..
…………………………………………………..
As Mele, a bar singer and her unemployed husband Chaka face a rough patch in their marriage, their neighbors gather in a trial court in their courtyard to fight for their rights. A phenomenal director known for his Oscar-nominated documentary ‘Timbuktu’, Sissako was born in Mauritania, but he ended up working in Malian cinema throughout his life. Bamako is not his most accomplished or respected effort, but it is by far his most important work in terms of subject matter.
The whole arc with Mele and Chaka was uninteresting and rushed. That was the weaker section of the film that thankfully focused much more extensively on the courtyard trial that provokes so many interesting questions about the world. Yes, the movie points out the blame for Africa’s stagnant development on their own corrupt governments only sporadically, but that critique was thankfully still there and it’s important to hear.
But the majority of the movie was devoted to critiquing the West and their contributions in the continent’s slow development. The director proposes that the IMF and the World Bank helped the African countries only momentarily, but ended up throwing them in a lifelong debt from which they would hardly recover.
The fact that Sissako made such an openly anti-globalist movie was hugely admirable and he needs to be respected for speaking out his truth. This is a revelatory viewing experience as it opens our eyes to all the wrongs of the globalist movement and how nobody seems to really care about Africa. It’s heartbreaking, but necessary to hear this.
…………………………………………………..
…………………………………………………..
With that being said, Bamako was an overly stagey product due to its emphasis on courtroom speeches and didacticism. The director tried to elevate the movie by incorporating more advanced cinematography and editing techniques, but still the film felt exceedingly small-scale and limited in setting. It would have served better as a stage play, but it’s a very good courtroom drama nonetheless.
Abderrahmane Sissako’s Bamako is a courtroom drama that is too limited in scope, thus it would have served better as a stage play. Still, this is a heartbreaking, thematically important movie that is commendable how honest it is about all major African problems such as government corruption and poverty, but the director most extensively criticized the horrible role of the West in the stifled development of this continent, thus making the film admirably anti-globalist in its messaging.
My Rating – 4
