Timbuktu is one of several films using the legal system of a religion, and specifically the courtroom, as a space to test our assumptions about that religion and its adherents. Similar to that of Kiarostami’s Close-Up or the Elkabetzes’ Gett, the centerpiece of Timbuktu is a series of court scenes and conversations that challenge the ease with which we map justice onto religious impulses.
The film is a re-enactment of a 2012 jihadist uprising in Mali resulting in the occupation of Timbuktu by violent fundamentalists. Despite the occasional levity with which Sissako treats the absurdity and duplicity of these jihadists, the film does not flinch when it comes to narrating this tragedy. Sissako renders the city and its neighboring deserts in poetic, even transcendent tones. But this only provides a more memorable backdrop against which this parable of desire, righteousness, and family plays out.
Woven around Timbuktu’s conversations about God and mercy is a masterful cinematic evocation of human suffering and solidarity.—M. Leary (2015)
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- Directed by: Abderrahmane Sissako
- Produced by: Rémi Burah Etienne Comar Sylvie Pialat Olivier Père Benoît Quainon Gilles Sitbon
- Written by:Abderrahmane Sissako Kessen Tall
- Music by: Amin Bouhafa
- Cinematography by: Sofian El Fani
- Editing by: Nadia Ben Rachid
- Release Date: 2014
- Running Time: 96
- Language: French, Arabic, English
Arts & Faith Lists:
2015 Ecumenical Jury — #3
2020 Top 100 — #94