Court, you see, is in session for the trial of the century -- OK, the mock trial of the century. African society is taking the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the planet's other financial institutions to task for a kind of crime against humanity: loan repayment. How, the Africans argue, can these countries expect to prosper when so much of their budgets are being spent to climb out of the red?
Populations grow poorer, mortality rates balloon, and the political strife begets refugees and leads to diasporas. The lawyers representing the institutions retort: Why would we want you to suffer? Debt forgiveness is an obvious solution, but the two sides are thinking, in part, beyond just the immediate fix. Amazingly, "Bamako" elevates this skirmish to philosophical heights without forsaking the human and political emergency of the practical matters at hand.
To a large extent, the Africans represent themselves. The witnesses range from an eloquent and impassioned writer to a frail former schoolteacher who stands powerfully speechless at the podium. The trouble with Africa in the media lately is that the news producers and Hollywood filmmakers rarely find actual Africans to speak their mind. Not only are the Malians speaking up, they're raising their voices.
More than once, this sense of self-empowerment sparks disorder in the court as members of the audience or people minding their business on the outskirts interrupt to lob their convictions like a hand grenade. This is most explosively done when one woman, furious and exasperated, crashes the action to curse the defendants. "Enough with suffering!" "Enough with manipulation!" Later, we see someone checking her blood pressure.
Sissako grew up in Mali (this is his fourth feature) and has said in interviews that he sees "Africa as a zone of injustice." That's not the only description he comes up with in "Bamako." Aggrieved Africans complain of symbolic and insignificant elections and that dehumanization breeds incivility. Someone else asserts that corruption is globalization's most unstoppable industry.
