“Passionate and visually beautiful … Timbuktu is a cry from the heart—with all the more moral authority for being expressed with such grace and such care.” —Guardian (UK)

Nominated for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Timbuktu is based on factual events of the brief 2012 occupation of the legendary city by religious fundamentalists. The film focuses on the humanistic effects of the conflict on the townspeople. The familiar woes of everyday life and remarkable resistance to a hostile takeover encircle a narrative that follows a herder and his family residing on the outskirts of town. Universal truths of human nature emerge as he experiences an upturned idea of justice following a dispute over his slaughtered prize cow. Cast includes musicians Ibrahim Ahmed, Telawt Walet Bilal, and Fatoumata Diawara. 2014, DCP, in Arabic, Bambara, French, English, Songhay, and Tamasheq with English subtitles, 97 minutes.

Meet the Filmmaker

This screening is introduced by Abderrahmane Sissako. Join the director for a post-screening discussion led by Charles Sugnet, University of Minnesota.