Abdelkerim sees a bush of green grass in the middle of the desert, stops the car, takes his rifle and shoots at it. This is one of the most powerful moments of the movie. There must be desert in Timbuktu: no room for cultural activities, for entertainment, for socialization, for making your own decision, for green grass. There are no differences in Timbuktu: wooden sculpture can be destroyed in the same way as humans can be killed in the sand. It is difficult to keep your equilibrium while walking in this thick sand: it is difficult for local people and for animals but also for the jihadists (emblematic the fact that Abdelkerim smokes and everybody knows about it). Sissako enlightens us with his direct film, through use of shallow focuses and a balance between close ups (an extreme one on the dying cow) and long shots (an amazing one on the river at the end of the struggle between the shepherd and the fisherman). The scene of the football match with an invisible ball (any reference to Antonioni's Blowup?) is also very powerful. Can we anyway escape the crude reality with illusion? Timbuktu is certainly a movie that will raise questions in your head once you leave the movie theater.
Review of Timbuktu
