Malian movie puts World Bank, IMF on trial
Blogged by: Megan Rowling
Scene from the trial in Bamako
Copyright: Artificial Eye, 2005
Copyright: Artificial Eye, 2005
Bamako is a film about voice - above all, Africans asserting their right to speak and be heard by the rest of the world. Sadly, that's a rare thing.
In the lively courtyard of a mud-walled house in the Malian capital Bamako, lawyers and civilians put international financial institutions on trial. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are charged with impoverishing African societies through years of painful economic reform and the persistent problem of external debt.
Sounds a bit worthy? Perhaps, but Bamako is also poetic, moving, and even funny at times.
The couple whose house provides the setting for the trial are breaking up, ground down by their daily struggle to keep afloat. Theirs and others' lives go on around the judges' red and black robes. A child's trainers squeak loudly as he potters around, women dye cloth, Melé gets dressed for her job as a bar singer, the World Bank lawyer gets ripped off when buying "designer" sunglasses.
Mauritanian-born director Abderrahmane Sissako makes these details the backing track for the witnesses' voices - sometimes strong, sometimes silent.
One woman is moved to tears as she tells the court how the World Bank-driven privatisation and closure of parts of the railway system have decimated local communities. A former teacher takes the witness stand but has been so hurt by the effect of education cutbacks he cannot bring himself to speak.
But the film makes it clear not all the blame lies with Western institutions. Danny Glover stars in a spaghetti western cameo that sees him ride into town to take on a gang of cowboys wreaking havoc. The cowboy who shoots a 'superfluous' schoolteacher is African - the director's way of showing that the African elite is also responsible for the continent's woes.
The story behind the film is fascinating. Most of the actors aren't actors but real lawyers and local people, including a number of Sissako's neighbours, and much of the action is unscripted.
Yet, despite the depth of the Malians' grievances, the legal proceedings steer clear of triumphalism.
Sissako explains: "The people who gravitate around the courtroom believe in the trial but don't expect anything from the verdict. When talking about the West, in order to encourage me, one of the witnesses said: 'At least they'll know that we know'."
Bamako is currently showing in New York, and goes on general release in Britain on Feb. 23. For more information on the film and how you can take action on the issues it raises, visit the website: www.bamako-themovie.com
AlertNet talked to Abderrahmane Sissako and his wife and co-producer Magda Abdi Gonji. Click here to read the interview.
Reuters AlertNet is not responsible for the content of external websites.
2 responses to “Malian movie puts World Bank, IMF on trial”
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17 Feb 2007 10:51:13 GMT
Although not a ardent supporter of the World Bank, IMF nor many of our often "personal" agenda focused donor / aid organizations, I have to say from my experiences in Mali and the lack over the past couple of decades in any real positive changes in human living conditions in Mali (look at education levels: no change; wealth or poverty levels: no change; infant mortality rates: no change...) , and the institutionalization of foreign aid as a Malian industry, much of the blame for the state of things in Mali fells on its too often, to put it bluntly, corrupt officials and lack of real will or putting aside their personal agendas to get things accomplished for the betterment of the average person in Mali. We in the west are also at time too patronizing to the Malian people concerning these societal problems...not to say we don't have much of the same problems chez nous.
19 Feb 2007 20:01:28 GMT
To quote the lyrics of Bruce Cockburn's song "Call it Democracy":
Padded with power here they come International loan sharks backed by the guns Of market hungry military profiteers Whose word is a swamp and whose brow is smeared With the blood of the poor Who rob life of its quality Who render rage a necessity By turning countries into labour camps Modern slavers in drag as champions of freedom Sinister cynical instrument Who makes the gun into a sacrament -- The only response to the deification Of tyranny by so-called "developed" nations' Idolatry of ideology North South East West Kill the best and buy the rest It's just spend a buck to make a buck You don't really give a flying fuck About the people in misery IMF dirty MF Takes away everything it can get Always making certain that there's one thing left Keep them on the hook with insupportable debt See the paid-off local bottom feeders Passing themselves off as leaders Kiss the ladies shake hands with the fellows Open for business like a cheap bordello And they call it democracy And they call it democracy And they call it democracy And they call it democracy See the loaded eyes of the children too Trying to make the best of it the way kids do One day you're going to rise from your habitual feast To find yourself staring down the throat of the beast They call the revolution IMF dirty MF Takes away everything it can get Always making certain that there's one thing left Keep them on the hook with insupportable debt