Bamako Puts Globalization on Trial
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08/24/09
Bamako (2006)
85
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:53
Fresh:45
Rotten:8
Average Rating:7.1/10
Consensus: A courtroom drama and a portrait of everyday Mali life, Bamako approaches both subjects with equal skill and success.
Theatrical Release:Feb 14, 2007 Limited
Synopsis: The life of a troubled couple from a town in Mali is the focus of director Abderrahmnane Sissako’s BAMAKO. While the husband, Chaka, is out of work, Mele is barely scraping by as a singer in a... [More]
Starring: Danny Glover, Aissa Maiga, Tiecoura Traore, Maimouna Helene Diarra
Director: Abderrahmnane Sissako
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Reviews for Bamako
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04/23/09
Bamako is an amazing polemical political film like no other.
07/02/08
Issue-driven drama has rarely been so polemic as it is in this fierce attack on the World Bank and International Monetary Fund's role in African poverty.
06/13/08
Sissako's bolt of lightning is how he once again merges spaces: he sets the trial out-of-doors... editing the village's daily events as if they are all a part of the trial's fabric.
06/02/08
A clumsy, talk-heavy and crushingly heavy-handed hybrid. While it may have the best of intentions, Bamako is sometimes hard to watch.
08/16/07
Unlike other recent films about the plight of Africa, Bamako channels its outrage more directly, yet with greater subtlety, by recruiting real-life witnesses to Africa's economic crises.
08/10/07
Free of the indignant self-righteousness of Michael Moore's lowbrow sloganeering, Abderrahmane Sissako's poetic drama offers a clear-sighted examination of Third World economic collapse.
08/09/07
Bamako is a film that grows on you. Its power is subtle and you don't really feel the impact until it's all over. And when it has, its left with you something unshakeably real.
07/22/07
If Jean-Luc Godard had kept his sense of humor, he might be making engaging movies like Bamako.
06/28/07
Top CriticDramatic features born and bred on the African continent are rare commodities on these shores, and the opportunities they offer can stretch far beyond film appreciation and into the realm of world understanding.
06/22/07
[An] intimate, urgent and wildly imaginative indictment of post-colonial economic policies in Africa.
06/14/07
Top CriticTrial movies can be painful, but Bamako is a powerful polemic leavened with moments of beauty and humor.
06/02/07
Top CriticBamako is an attack on globalization that is endlessly cogent, confrontational -- and, best of all, as captivating as it is illuminating.
06/01/07
Top CriticBamako is challenging without a doubt, but Sissako's righteous anger never loses its ability to connect to the heart, even in the film's densest thickets of symbolism.
06/01/07
Overall, Bamako is a passionate plea, filled with interesting ideas and wrapped up in an uneven presentation.
05/31/07
Awkward, dull film.
04/19/07
A strange and often haunting little film.
04/13/07
Top Critic[Director] Sissako somehow manages to reconcile the passionate words of the debate and the mundane activities surrounding it, but he seems most interested in noting and even marveling at the subtle comedy of their coexistence.
03/09/07
Top Critic[Director] Sissako has an unusual camera eye, patient and alert to the ebb and flow of both the courtroom sequences and the outside scenes. The music is wonderful as well.
03/08/07
Top CriticLatest News for Bamako
February 15, 2007:
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This week at the movies, we've got skulls ("Ghost Rider," starring Nicolas Cage), songwriters ("Music and Lyrics," starring Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore)... More...
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