Bamako (Mali: 2006)

Director

Abderrahmane Sissako

Cast list

Asia Maiga - Mele
Tiecoura Traore - Chaka
Maimouna Helene Diarra - Saramba
Balla Habib Dembele - Falai
Djeneba Kone - La soeur de Chaka
Hamadoun Kassogue - Le journaliste
William Bourdon - Avocat partie civile
Mamadou Canote - Avocat de la defense
Gabriel Magma Konate - Le procureur
Aminata Traore - Temoin 2
Danny Glover - Cow-boy

Credits

Writing: Abderrahmane Sissako

Synopsis

Mele is a bar singer, her husband Chaka is out of work and the couple is on the verge of breaking up... In the courtyard of the house they share with other families, a trial court has been set up. African civil society spokesmen have taken proceedings against the World Bank and the IMF whom they blame for Africa's woes... Amidst the pleas and the testimonies, life goes on in the courtyard. Chaka does not seem to be concerned by this novel Africa's desire to fight for its rights...

Reviews

Dennis Lim, One Angry African Puts Big Money on Trial. The New York Times (online newspaper)

Bamako. Trigon-Film (blog)

Abderrahmane Sissako, An Interview with Abderrahmane Sissako, Director of Bamako. Spirituality & Practice (online magazine)

Academic Articles:
Of Rations and Rationalities: The World Bank, African Hunger, and Abderrahmane Sissako’s Bamako by Tejumola Olaniyan. Global South, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Fall 2008), pp. 130-138

Screening Africa in Colour: Abderrahmane Sissako’s Bamako by Jacqueline Maingard. Screen, Vol. 51, No. 4 (Winter 2010), pp. 397-403

Words on Trial: Oral Performance in Abderrahamane Sissako’s Bamako by Alison Levine. Studies in French Cinema, Vol. 12, No. 2 (2012), pp. 151-167

‘Provoking Situations’: Abderrahmane Sissako’s Documentary Fiction by Alison Levine. Journal of African Cinemas, Vol. 3, No. 1 (2011), pp. 93-107
A Conversation with Danny Glover & Joslyn Barnes by Jeanette Davidon. World Literature Today, Vol. 82, No. 2 (Mar. – Apr., 2008), pp. 22-29

Other movies from Mali made in

Title Country Year Director More infos
Who’s Afraid of Ngugi Mali 2006 Manthia Diaware
Bamako Mali 2006 Abderrahmane Sissako
Sorry, there's no movie with the same year.