Timbuktu [DVD] (2014)

Thomas Hobbes famously wrote in Leviathan (1668) about the relationship between society and the state. Most people, it was thought, valued freedom above all else. But he said no. More important was security, protection, safety. The state exists to provide this for the people, he wrote, and he was right. If not, why in our day the enormous defence and military budgets, the spy agencies, the homeland securities with their surveillance systems (ID cards, data bases, CCTV cameras, etc.)? All these things — these freedoms impinged upon — are tolerated by people in return for the promise of state protection. Which is why terrorism is so successful, or can be. It looks for the Achille’s heel in states that are weakened and concentrates all its might there.What does the world look like where the state is broken, where the people are defenceless, where the warlords and jihadists fill the void with their arbitrary rule? It looks like Timbuktu, or the Timbuktu portrayed in this sad but enlightening film. Here the moral enforcers operate under Sharia law. They’re killjoys of course, rigid ideologues with no funny bones in them. Music, song and dance are outlawed. Why? Forms of free expression. Smoking and drinking are forbidden. Why? Forms of decadence and degeneracy. Football is banned. Why? It’s fun, and fun is uncontrollable. As for women, the second sex, they’re born to obey what men decide, decisions disguised under holy law. Covered heads, faces, hands too with gloves in the oppressive heat.The law, they also say, is God’s will. So who’s to argue with it? None. And just in case, these so-called holy men have guns. Lots of them. One might reasonably ask, “What are religious people, holy men, doing with guns?” But no one is allowed to be reasonable and ask.Religion of course is politics by another name. Or can be, and is so here in Timbuktu. What punishments for violations of Sharia law are meted out? To the girl, perhaps 17 or 18, who refused to wear black gloves to cover her hands, 40 lashes across her back in the public square. Worse is stoning, the accused buried in the ground up to the neck and pummelled with stones. We see these atrocities committed in the name of religion, the shouts to Allah as righteous and good ringing out while the rocks are hurled. A travesty, anarchy, a gangland of outlaws who rule when the protective power of the state has been broken. In such a place at such a time the best one can hope for is to be inconspicuous, invisible even better.Kidane is trying his best to be invisible. He’s a cattle herder who lives with his wife and young daughter (possibly 10 years old) in a large tent along a river far from the nearest village. He’s well off the beaten track by design, his refuge a form of freedom, however limited. Here he and his family can live in peace. Or so he reckons. But life being what it is (largely ironic), things are never quite so easy. By trying to become inconspicuous he becomes conspicuous, suspicious. Why live in such a remote place if he has nothing to hide? The Sharia warriors will want to know, and if they are dissatisfied with his answers they may wish to exact their pound of flesh. There is little protection. Remoteness is the best he can do under such trying circumstances. It provides some cover. At night he strums his guitar, his wife and daughter singing to it, their faces radiant in the campfire glow. Here the ban on music cannot reach them.But a crisis occurs. Accusations against Kidane are made. How will he defend himself? There is no secular law to speak of. There was but now it’s gone. Who will protect his family if he cannot, if he is taken from it? What rights has he? How will he survive, if he can?The film is an investigation into this last question (and several others). It wants to know how people can be expected to live this way. It doesn’t say so directly but proposes fairness, justice, and equality under legitimate law, not unjust qualities enacted under laws interpreted by religion.Thomas Hobbes could not have known much if anything about life in the part of Africa now called Mali. But he needn’t have understood the details there to know the principle of what he espoused. He was right and the film shows how and why he was. The people suffer because they have little protection from those who make new rules sanctioned by guns and holy books. The people are at their mercy, a quality non-existent in these ideologues.This is the future when fair and just government breaks down, when anarchy reigns and warlords take over. They don’t even need an ideology. They just need might and the willingness to express it arbitrarily and liberally, if one can pardon the latter expression. The far-off deserts of Timbuktu and Mali may not seem to hold any warning for us. But this is deceptive. They do. This film does. It says we must remain vigilant to have good governments govern us, for if we don’t and are left to forces beyond them for protection, we may all become remote desert dwellers, looking wherever we can for the safest places to hide.The film doesn’t make for easy viewing. All the more reason, then, why it should be seen. Also, though this may seem largely irrelevant, the light and colours of the desert are beautiful to behold. So too the music, played and sung by Mali musicians.Languages spoken and subtitled in English are French, Arabic, and the local minority languages of Tamasheq and Bambara.

Great money and music

Wonderfully atmospheric film that captures the absurdity and hypocrisy of the new jihadist rulers of Timbuktu and contrasts this with the somewhat stoical, but quite charming local Malian population - watch out for the scene where the locals play football with an imaginary ball (soccer games are banned by the jihadists); quite brilliant!The cinematography is beautiful and the plot is engaging, with some excellent acting too. It seemed quite a well-balanced film, with the jihadists being portrayed as humans rather than monsters, albeit as somewhat confused, inconsistent and slightly comical characters at times. The brutality of the jihadists is also well demonstrated in some quite disturbing scenes (such as the stoning), so we are not allowed to forget the very dark side of the jihadist rule. There are also some quite powerful scenes where local religious leaders argue with the jihadists about what they're doing, and debating whether they are true to the Koran or not.I really enjoyed this film as it's beautiful to watch and also sends out a powerful message about the dangers of religious intolerance - it's obviously aimed at Islam due to the jihadist invasion portrayed in this film, but the message could apply equally well to other religions too.

Much has been said about ‘Timbuktu’, but what I find most refreshing about it is the ironic, humorous and even playful way the film handles a contentious and distressing subject. It essentially does what Adam Hills of ‘The Last Leg’ proposes as the best way to defeat extremism: making a mockery of such ideologies. However, the director Abderrahmane Sissako makes that premise subtle by gently weaving in visual lyricism, so that the movie’s overall impact is a celebration of human spirit against tyranny. That in my book is a masterstroke, the reason why ‘Timbuktu’ is the African film so far to win the highest number of awards.My favourite scene in the movie is where the visiting western jihadist ‘trims a bush’ on the dunes by machine-gunning it, a mirthful gag that reveals enough about the man in a few seconds! A smoking, frivolous misfit amongst God’s soldiers, he is the perfect symbol of the gullible juveniles who join the jihad for thrills.

A beautiful slow sad film that takes its time to make its point. Set in a part of the Sahel that overlaps different ethnic groups, languages, religions, traditions and ways of agricultural or pastoral life , the rule of strict Sharia law has to cover a myriad of interactions. From punishing (brutally) the playing of music to administering a justice system based on paying a cattle price for killing, the general effect is of a medieval or early modern society which has been given AK47s and Toyota technicals.

I’ve hear a lot about this movie and would like to watch it but I’m not sure if English language is included as the subtitle or not and the cover does not show. Anyone can advise?

Beautiful cinematography and hauntingly moving story about the clash between bullies hiding behind a fundamentalist flag and the simple life of a people they have little in common with and intend to dominate. Amidst this ordinary life goes on but is changed. While there are other films of the issues in Mali they tend to be more documentary in nature. This is a most moving story and leaves you with a lot to think about.

A simple and yet beautiful movie helping to understand life as it was in Daesh's controlled Timbuktu. A simple tale in a very complex context of various people sharing the Sahara desert, and endless communication struggles. It sometimes lack a bit of pace, hence 4 stars but it is first and foremost a movie for reflection.