Spoiler Warning: This discussion has very few spoilers: some set up from the first act, a general idea of the narrative at hand.
















Rating: 3 out of 5.

"Debt is a stone around Africa's neck."

Bamako, my first ever Malian film, was an interesting little watch, even if I didn't find it to be the most exciting two hours of my time. I actually have relatively little to say about the film because it's a particularly compact movie filled with political content that I have no place to commentate on.

The filming methods are rudimentary, intentionally replicating the commentary that the film provides. It was genuinely intriguing to see an African viewpoint on the poverty and exploitation of the continent, backed up with a heavy dose of emotional dialogue. The courtroom scenes add an equal serving of legitimacy to the arguments but subtract as much away by placing it in the yard of an apartment complex constantly interrupted by weddings. It works well as a comparison for the level of education and the awareness of the serious issues facing Mali whilst also showing that it has not got the resources to facilitate a response because of the colonisation and exploitation of the continent.

Regardless, Bamako is also bogged down with a relatively boring marital subplot that never really takes off and distracts from the point of the film in my eyes. I think there's something really interesting in the fact that only the French is subtitled, and the native language is left sacred from the Western world to pillage. However, this is a film I will certainly never see again and one that I definitely won't recommend to anyone who doesn't have a healthy interest in African politics or financial morality.

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