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Timbuktu
Directed by Abderrahmane Sissako
4/5
ABDERRAHMANE SISSAKO’S Oscar-nominated drama is a powerful and disquieting depiction of life under jihadist rule which provides some rare insights.
It opens with a group of jihadists chasing and shooting at a gazelle from a moving truck. One of them shouts: “Don’t kill it, tire it!” and this appears to be their plan for the residents of Timbuktu.
The drama then unfolds around Kidane (Ibrahim Ahmed) a cattle herder who lives peacefully in the dunes outside Timbuktu with his wife and daughter. That changes when he accidentally kills the fisherman who slaughtered his prized cow and falls foul of jihadist justice.
His story is set against the experience of the Timbuktu residents who, terrorised by the religious fundamentalists who have captured their town, are nevertheless determined to control their faith.
Music, football and smoking — among other things — are banned and the penalties for breaking the rules, which seem to be made up by the jihadists as they go along, become ever more extreme.
But the people fight back as best they can. One woman, reprimanded for not wearing gloves, points out the ludicrousness of this new rule as she cannot sell fish as a result and insists on being taken away rather than obeying a nonsensical edict. Meanwhile a group of young lads are seen playing football with a pretend ball in a quietly poignant act of defiance.
The film was inspired in part by the 2012 stoning to death of a 30-something couple with two children in Aguelhok, northern Mali because they weren’t married. To non-fundamentalists, that beggars belief and such intolerance is underscored in the film when a gunman with a loudhailer walks the streets informing people adultery is a sin and won’t be tolerated, especially if committed during Ramadan.
Exquisitely shot, with stunning landscapes, Timbuktu is nevertheless violent and brutal. But in providing a nuanced portrayal of jihadists — some of whom have problems abiding by their own edicts — it’s a fascinating and thought-provoking drama.
