Timbuktu
First screened in September 2014 / Most recently screened in December 2019
Director: Abderrahmane Sissako. Cast: Ibrahim Ahmed, Toulou Kiki, Mehdi Ag Mohamed, Toulou Kiki, Abel Jafri, Fatoumata Diawara, Adel Mahmoud Cherif, Layla Walet Mohamed, Kettly Noël, Salem Dendou, Hichem Yacoubi. Screenplay: Abderrahmane Sissako and Kessen Tall.

Twitter Capsule: Eloquent, somber, and visually gripping. Opens out Sissako's style for wider consumption without yielding a simple film.

VOR:   African cinema on a European-auteurist model, each complicating the other. Again, Sissako shows new, unusual conceptions of "political cinema." Beautiful, too.



Photo © 2014 Les Films du Worso/Dune Vision/Arches Film/ARTE France Cinéma/Orange Studio, © 2015 Cohen Media Group

Not yet reviewed in full. Grade: A–

(in September 2014: B+)


Academy Award Nominations:
Best Foreign Language Film

Other Awards:
Cannes Film Festival: Prize of the Ecumenical Jury
New York Film Critics Circle: Best Foreign Language Film
National Society of Film Critics: Best Foreign Language Film

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