Bamako (2006)
80%RT Audience Score: 70%
Awards & Nominations: 4 wins & 2 nominations
A courtroom drama and a portrait of everyday Mali life, Bamako approaches both subjects with equal skill and success
Bamako is a courtroom drama that’s not your typical Law and Order episode. This movie is like a spicy African dish that’s full of flavor and will leave you feeling satisfied. It’s a movie that’s not afraid to tackle the tough issues of Africa’s economic crises head-on. But don’t worry, it’s not all doom and gloom. There are moments of beauty and humor that will make you laugh and cry. Bamako is a movie that will make you think and feel, and isn’t that what great movies are all about?
Production Company(ies)
Distributor
NA
Release Type
Filming Location(s)
Bamako, Mali
MPAA / Certificate
Year of Release
2006
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Dolby Digital
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Aspect ratio:1.85 : 1
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Runtime:NA
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Language(s):French, Bambara, English, Hebrew
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Streaming): Dec 22, 2020
Genre(s)
Drama
Keyword(s)
Bamako, drama, courtroom drama, Mali, international capitalism, cabaret singer, Mele, Aissa Maiga, peasants, farmers, international banking cabal, Abderrahmane Sissako, directed by Abderrahmane Sissako, written by Abderrahmane Sissako, produced by Abderrahmane Sissako, box office, gross USA, $112.4K, reviewed by Richard Brody, Seattle Times, Ann Hornaday, Washington Post, Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times, MPAA rating, streaming, rent/buy, cast and crew, Djénéba Koné, Maimouna Hélène Diarra, Balla Habib Dembélé, Hamadoun Kassogué, William Bourdon, original language, Bambara, critic reviews, audience score, drama, portrait of everyday Mali life, courtroom drama with a difference, outrage, economic crises, post-colonial economic policies, globalization, attack on globalization, correction to western stereotype of Africa, polemical political film, issue-driven drama, fierce attack on the World Bank and International Monetary Fund’s role in African poverty
Worldwide gross: $1,059,232
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $1,562,004
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,486
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 170,338
US/Canada gross: $112,351
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $165,679
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,578
US/Canada opening weekend: $10,183
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $15,016
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,603
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): 2000000
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): $2,949,314
Production budget ranking: 1,980
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): $1,588,206
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): -$2,975,516
ROI to date (est.): -66%
ROI ranking: 1,782
Maimouna Hélène Diarra – Saramba
Balla Habib Dembélé – Falaï
Djénéba Koné – La soeur de Chaka
Hamadoun Kassogué – Le journaliste
William Bourdon – Avocat partie civile
Director(s)
Abderrahmane Sissako
Writer(s)
Abderrahmane Sissako
Producer(s)
Abderrahmane Sissako
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
4 wins & 2 nominations
Academy Awards
All Critics (57) | Top Critics (29) | Fresh (48) | Rotten (9)
A courtroom drama with a difference.
April 18, 2016
Richard Brody
New Yorker
TOP CRITIC
Unlike other recent films about the plight of Africa, Bamako channels its outrage more directly, yet with greater subtlety, by recruiting real-life witnesses to Africa’s economic crises.
August 10, 2007 | Rating: 3/4
Jeff Shannon
Seattle Times
TOP CRITIC
Dramatic features born and bred on the African continent are rare commodities on these shores, and the opportunities they offer can stretch far beyond film appreciation and into the realm of world understanding.
June 22, 2007 | Rating: 3.5/5
Marjorie Baumgarten
Austin Chronicle
TOP CRITIC
[An] intimate, urgent and wildly imaginative indictment of post-colonial economic policies in Africa.
June 14, 2007
Ann Hornaday
Washington Post
TOP CRITIC
Trial movies can be painful, but Bamako is a powerful polemic leavened with moments of beauty and humor.
June 2, 2007 | Rating: 3/4
Walter V. Addiego
San Francisco Chronicle
TOP CRITIC
Bamako is an attack on globalization that is endlessly cogent, confrontational — and, best of all, as captivating as it is illuminating.
June 1, 2007
Kevin Thomas
Los Angeles Times
TOP CRITIC
The work has many strong and honest moments, and striking images. The filmmaker does not idealize anyone, but neither does he indulge in cynicism or despair.
February 14, 2021
David Walsh
World Socialist Web Site
Bamako works because it offers a corrective to the – sometimes unintentionally – condescending western stereotype of Africa as an afflicted and pitiable continent.
June 3, 2020 | Rating: 4/5
PJ Nabarro
Patrick Nabarro
Bamako Puts Globalization on Trial
August 24, 2009
Rob Nelson
City Pages, Minneapolis/St. Paul
Bamako is an amazing polemical political film like no other.
July 2, 2008 | Rating: A
Dennis Schwartz
Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
Issue-driven drama has rarely been so polemic as it is in this fierce attack on the World Bank and International Monetary Fund’s role in African poverty.
June 13, 2008 | Rating: 3/5
Amber Wilkinson
Eye for Film
Sissako’s bolt of lightning is how he once again merges spaces: he sets the trial out-of-doors… editing the village’s daily events as if they are all a part of the trial’s fabric.
June 2, 2008
Robert Davis
Paste Magazine…
Plot
Cabaret singer Mele returns home to find her apartment complex transformed into a tribunal putting the institutions of international capitalism on trial in Abderrahmane Sissako’s courtroom drama and portrait of everyday Mali life, Bamako.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
No goofy or funny or odd comments were found in the Fresh Kernels database for Bamako.
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