Abderrahmane Sissako will join the jury for the 5th MyFrenchFilmFestival. His presence at the event gives us a chance to discuss the director’s fifth feature film, which has recently hit the screens in France.
Presented earlier this year in the Official Selection at the 2014 Cannes International Film Festival, Timbuktu won the Ecumenical Jury Prize as well as the François-Chalais Prize, which honors the values of life affirmation and journalism.
Timbuktu portrays the everyday life of a family in the town of Timbuktu in Mali at a time when the city falls under the control of the jihadists. Kidane, a Tuareg goat and cattle herder who lives in the desert with his wife and daughter, must submit to the new laws imposed by the jihadists.
Shot partly in Mali with both professional and non-professional actors, Abderrahmane Sissako’s film bears witness to a complex reality, while resisting a stereotypical representation of the jihadists. Through a rich tapestry of stories and layers of meaning, the film reveals a group of characters at the crossroads between politics and personal life.
For this film, the Mauritanian filmmaker was inspired by a real-life event that occurred in the summer of 2012, the stoning by Islamists of a young couple at Aguel’hok, a small town in the north of Mali.
