Africans Challenge Global Corruption in 'Bamako'

Africans challenge global corruption in 'Bamako' courtroom.
By Wesley Morris (excerpt)
02/16/2007

Hollywood typically brings us courtroom dramas full of last-minute revelations, shocking witnesses, and actorly bombast ("You can't handle the truth!"). Abderrahmane Sissako's mighty courtroom drama "Bamako" offers none of these overheated frills.

Court is held in a multifamily courtyard in Bamako, Mali. A breeze gently covers onlookers with insects and dust. And during the proceedings villagers are likely to be seen going about their daily business peeling potatoes or transporting the children here and there. But the truth is far harder to handle in this damning and sparely made film.

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.