Bamako

Africa seems to have got much closer to Australia in the last few years and hence the importance of this film has increased. Not one to beat about the bush, Sissako simply puts the World Bank, the IMF and the whole system of globalisation on trial—literally—in the courtyard of the house in which he grew up. The charges are that the west has created the conditions of poverty, and then sold post-colonial Africa a solution from which they extract enormous sums annually in the service of debts. Government ministers and toothless old men stop by to have their say. Danny Glover and Elia Suleiman even ride into town and enact a short cowboy movie to provide a symbolic account of the action. Sissako’s name might be familiar from Waiting for Happiness and this film marks him out as one of the boldest voices in African cinema at present.

A strong candidate for African film of the year, The Court (aka Bamako) brilliantly rises to the challenge of presenting a serious discussion of globalization, African debt and the World Bank in a lively, entertaining feature film.

Variety