Abderrahmane Sissako was born in Mauritania. He spent most of his childhood in his father’s country, Mali, before going to Moscow to study film in the 1980s. He lives now in Paris but his films deal with contemporary reality in sub-Saharan Africa – none more powerfully than this, his first to be selected for the main competition at Cannes. The film is a superb tragedy, told against the background of the fundamentalist Islamic takeover of Mali’s most famous city. Kidane (Ibrahim Ahmed) is a happy man, living in the dunes with his wife and beloved daughter and their precious herd of cows. When one of the cows is killed by a neighbouring fisherman, Kidane boils over. He is charged with murder and taken to prison, where the invaders from the north have imposed their version of Shariya law. They have prohibited music, tobacco, tea and even football. There is a beautiful, haunting scene where a group of teenagers play a game with an imaginary ball, until the enforcers arrive. Sissako treats both sides with dramatic respect, born out of a deep humanism. The northerners struggle to live up to their own rules too, especially the prohibition of cigarettes. At the same time, the film builds to an extremely confronting finale, as shocking as it is credible. The story is partly inspired by real events. Sissako has never lacked courage, but making a film such as this is politically difficult, even in France, which sent its own troops to drive the Islamist forces out of Timbuktu in 2013. It is a mature film, both thoughtful and daring.
