Successfully mixing intimate drama with proselytising political fiction, filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako has concocted an infinitely original and profoundly moving means for voicing Africa's grievances in his latest film, Bamako.

Melé is a bar singer, her husband Chaka is out of work and the couple are teetering on the verge of breaking up. In the unpaved courtyard of the house they share with other families in the poor section of Bamako, a trial court has been set up. African civil society spokesmen have taken action against the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which they blame for Africa's woes. Amidst the pleas and the testimonies, life goes on in the courtyard. An hilarious, albeit brief, mid-section film-within-a-film is a spoof Western starring fellow iconoclastic activists, Elia Suleiman and Danny Glover.

“A strong candidate for African film of the year, Bamako brilliantly rises to the challenge of presenting a serious discussion of globalization, African debt and the World Bank in a lively and entertaining feature film.” - Variety