Timbuktu
Presented by Main Street Landing and VTIFF
Co-Sponsored by Alliance Francaise of the Lake Champlain Region
Post-screening Q&A with Dr. Laurence Clerfeuille
Directed by Abderrahmane Sissako
Mauritania/France | Drama | Bambara, Arabic etc w/ English Subtitles | 2014 | 97 min.
Nominee – Best Foreign Language Film – 2015 Academy Awards
Official Competition 2014 Cannes Film Festival (Winner: Prix du Jury Ecuménique, François Chalais Award)
Not far from Timbuktu, now ruled by religious fundamentalists, Kidane lives peacefully in the dunes with his wife Satima, his daughter Toya, and Issan, their shepherd. In town, the people suffer, powerless, from the regime of terror imposed by the Jihadists. Music, laughter, cigarettes, even soccer have been banned. The women have become shadows but resist with dignity. Every day, the new improvised courts issue tragic and absurd sentences. Kidane and his family had been spared the chaos that prevails in Timbuktu, but when their destiny changes abruptly, Kidane must face the new laws of the foreign occupants.
Abderrahmane Sissako (born 13 October 1961) is a film director and producer who has often worked in Mali and France. Sissako is, along with Ousmane Sembène, Souleymane Cissé, Idrissa Ouedraogo and Djibril Diop Mambety, one of the few filmmakers from Sub-Saharan Africa to reach a measure of international influence. His film Waiting for Happiness (Heremakono) was screened at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival official selection under Un Certain Regard, winning the FIPRESCI Prize. His 2007 film Bamako received much attention. Sissako’s themes include globalisation, exile and the displacement of people.