Timbuktu (2014)
Directed by Abderrahmane Sissako
Just outside of the Malian city of Timbuktu, now occupied by militant Islamic rebels who impose the Sharia on civilians and inconvenience their daily life, a cattleman kills a fisherman.
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What critics compared Timbuktu to
(I assumed that this idealized family unit, standing against a climate of religious warfare and intolerance, was inspired by the similar family and similar context of Ingmar Bergman’s “The Seventh Seal.”
And doom duly arrives when Kidane’s favorite cow is killed by a fisherman and Kidane fights with and kills him, giving rise to one of the film’s many remarkable cinematographic moments (the DP is Sofiane El Fani of “Blue is the Warmest Color” fame) as in an extended extreme wide shot, Kidane stumbles and thrashes his way through the shallow river to get away from the body of the man he’s killed, the water rippling behind him like a jet stream.
The cinematography, by Sofian El Fani (“Blue Is the Warmest Color”), drops splashes of bright fabric and color into the serene brown desert palette.
It’s Sissako’s collaboration with cinematographer Sofian El Fani ( Blue Is the Warmest Color ) that lifts and shrivels your heart at the same time.
French cinematographer Sofian El Fani, who first attracted notice for 2013’s sexual coming of age “Blue Is the Warmest Color,” is as sensitive in capturing the haunting beauty of this place and its people.
And as shot by Blue Is the Warmest Color director of photography Sofian El Fani, these images are often luscious, using the setting sun and the night sky to soak in the beauty.
The magical production makes us feel the loss that much more deeply, the mesmerizing images of cinematographer Sofiane El Fani ("Blue Is the Warmest Color") complemented by Amin Bouhafa's orchestral score.