Timbuktu, written and directed by Abderrahmane Sissako - Nine out of 10

Timbuktu, written and directed by Abderrahmane Sissako

Nine out of 10

The only Mauritanian film we are ever likely to see – perhaps this cinephile should stop making probability calculations for you and stick to his own chances – is indeed phenomenal – it has been nominated for the most intrinsically valuable prize in the cinematic world, the Palme d’Or at the 2014 Cannes film festival, the Oscar and the BAFTA for Best Foreign Language Film and has won many other prizes, including seven Césars.

The narrative of the film is poignant, relevant in an age when we keep hearing about the jihadists – the news of this very morning referred to the child of that estranged teenager who has decided to join ISIS – and to my knowledge, she even brazenly expressed a sort of later satisfaction with her gesture – and who has died, in a camp where the ex- British mother is interned, with her citizenship revoked.

It helps a Western understand better what happens on these frontlines, not the ones in the relatively familiar – in a manner of speaking, for we keep seeing it in the news – Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen areas, but near Timbuktu, in Mali, where the fundamentalists operate with almost total impunity – in spite of the fact that there has been a French intervention and a push back against these forces of evil.

The fundamentals of the issue are exposed here, for we have characters that impose what they see as sharia, with the exaggerations we know from Saudi Arabia – the country from which teenagers have a tendency to try and run, when they can, finding themselves in Hong Kong, Thailand, which kills and dismembers journalists, as in the most recent case of the late Jamal Khashoggi – and abuse the population of the village near Timbuktu, killing some people, including by stoning them to death!

Even music is forbidden in the territories controlled by these mad men – going off on a tangent here, we could look at the Trump country – much less murderous and less insane of course – and think that at least, these people living in the Deseret lack education – in case you vote for the Orange Lunatic, yours is not any good anyway – and there are some extenuating circumstances, although joking in a Taliban style, these would just be enough to ensure for a killer that does not know any better, that he is executed in a more humane manner than he applies to his buried in the ground victims.

Ibrahim Ahmed is excellent in the role of Kidane, a cattle owner who lives with his wife, Satima, in the desert, in a large tent, a man with a very gentle manner at times, albeit involved in a fight in which another Malian is killed, seemingly a devout Muslim that shows some of the other face of Islam.

Bill Maher tells a joke about Islam being a religion of peace – there is a piece of you here, a piece of you there – and the crazy fundamentalists that are present in this formidable film belong to that dark, funeral side, imposing their terror, banning laughter, cigarettes together with music, and enforcing arbitrarily the rules from the Koran, whenever they choose.

In one such situation, a man walks to the family of a very young teenager, long before she is anyway near the marrying age, talks to her mother, saying that he saw her, thinks she is fine and wants to marry her, but the parent is rather infuriated – as she should be – by the proposal coming from a stranger – she says that she thinks it absurd to give her young daughter away to someone she does not know.

Alas, this is not the view of the barbaric tribunal – a group of vile, barbaric, monstrous men that conduct the affairs of their community according to their perverted views of the Muslim teachings - we can hear from moderates that this insistence on violence is not the correct take on what is a peaceful religion – jokingly, we have already established its credentials.

There is discussion that goes to what seems the essence of the dispute within the Islamic communities – besides, the others should take note perhaps and consider the fact that there are lunatics, as is the case within any large enough group, religious or otherwise, and sane, peaceful people – in which jihad seems to be explained with its two opposing interpretations, one in which enraged, deranged men take up arms to fight the generic infidels, while the other takes jihad to mean a fight with self, in which we all need to be better, kinder...

Mehdi Mohamed is probably better than the actor who has had to play Harry Potter, albeit much less famous, and he has the role of Issan, the poor twelve year old shepherd hired to care for the cattle of Kidane, which he takes to the water one day, only to fall in a capital, tragic trap, when one of them – called GPS for some reason, probably not in connection with the Global Positioning System, which would have been a good, dark jest, given that this animal had a tendency to be stubborn and lose her way – is moving into the nets of local man.

This individual shouts, warning to some extent the helpless boy, but the latter has no means to stop the cow from stepping into the fishing nets placed by the man who takes his spear out, after a short interlude, targets the doomed animal and kills it in front of a stunned audience – this viewer is almost one hundred per cent sure that one or a few animals for the needed shots have been sacrificed to render it possible, seeing the blood coming out of the nose of the body, the closeness of the take and other elements of the shocking scene.

After this, the shepherd returns to Kidane and tells him what happened, how one of just eight cattle has gone – the fisherman could be understood to some degree – especially if we consider his consequent fate – but he has exaggerated, could have stepped into the water to face the cow, waited for a little longer, but the issue is more complicated, for it has to do with pride, feeling of ownership of that part of the water, retribution as necessary for status, to prevent others from invading a cardinal territory, without which the family would starve, traditions would need to be taken into account…

Kidane is out to face the killer of one of his animals – without which there is no food for his wife and daughter – with his gun and a fight ensues, with the two men battling for their honor, families, existence, the habits of many generations, because too much testosterone is involved, they have no support group there for violence addicts, no analyst, little food and large areas covered with desert where resources are scares and to survive means to fight.

The same preposterous, fundamentalist tribunal will preside over a case in which they demand for forty cattle to be paid – when Kidane only has seven left – and other outrageous conditions.

Timbuktu is an unforgettable, extraordinary motion picture.