| Aïssa
Maïga, Helene Diarra , Tiecoura Tracore, Habib Dembele, Hamadoun
Kassogue , Zegue Bamba, Roland Rappaport .
Abderrahmane Sissako wrote and directed
this offbeat, satiric comedy which imagines how the powers that
be in the West might be forced to answer for the damage they've
done in the Third World. Mele (Aissa Maiga) is an attractive Malian
lounge singer married to Chaka (Tiecoura Traore), though their relationship
is on the verge of collapse. In their eyes, the African continent
isn't in much better shape than their marriage, and one day a makeshift
courtroom appears in the courtyard near their shabby home. In the
courtyard, a handful of powerful international organizations, such
as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, are put on
trial for their crippling effect on the African economy; as the
evidence is presented which explains how these "friends"
of Africa have saddled the nations with debts they can never repay,
witnesses explain how these actions impact the daily lives of ordinary
citizens, who pass through the trial as they go on with their days.
Executive producer Danny Glover makes a cameo appearance in a "Cowboys
and Indians" sequence which supposedly takes place in Timbuktu.
Bamako (aka The Court) received its North American premiere at the
2006 Toronto Film Festival. |