Bamako (2007)

Bamako, a passionate, challenging drama from the fine Mauritian writer-director Abderrahmane Sissako, is set in a communal courtyard in the capital of Mali, where a court of a very different kind is in session. On (fictional) trial: nothing less than the economic inequities of globalization (epitomized by the World Bank) perpetrated upon the entire African continent. The serious accusations are leavened by the moments of brimming, illogical, intimate neighborly dailiness the filmmaker also captures with warmth and infectious high spirits. A