They Will Have to Kill Us First 2015 ( 6.2)

In 2012, jihadists took control of northern Mali. They imposed one of the strictest interpretations of sharia law in history. On August 12th they banned music - radio stations destroyed, instruments burned and musicians facing torture, even death. Overnight, Mali’s most revered members of society – the musicians – were forced into hiding or exile. This film follows Mali’s musicians as they fight to keep music alive in their country. We witness fierce battles between the army and the jihadists, capture life over borders at refugee camps where money and hope are scarce, follow perilous journeys home to war ravaged cities, and for one band, Songhoy Blues, their path to international stardom.

Ali Farka Touré - Le miel n'est jamais bon dans une seule bouche 2002

This documentary follows the legendary African singer and guitarist Ali Farka Touré (who died in 2006) as he returns to his home and musical roots in Niafunké, the village on the banks of the River Niger in Mali. Touré now sees himself as a farmer and family man, and is trying to improve agricultural and social conditions in the province of Timbuktu. The region has no roads and no electricity and Touré himself drove director Marc Huraux across the vast expanse of unforgiving desert land that surrounds Niafunké to make this film. The cameras accompany Touré as he goes about his daily farm business, and fulfilling his role and responsibilities as an important local figure.

The Revolution Won't Be Televised 2016 ( 5)

When President Abdoulaye Wade wanted to run for office yet again in 2011, a resistance movement formed on the streets. Shortly afterwards, a group of school friends, including rappers Thiat and Kilifeu, set up "Y'en a marre" ("We Are Fed Up"), with filmmaker Rama Thiaw soon coming on board to start documenting events – meetings, campaigns, arrests, concerts, states of exhaustion, trips – from an "insider" perspective. Over several years, a stirring portrait emerged of a youth protest movement to whom independent observers were not the only ones to ascribe the role of "kingmaker" in the last elections. Rama Thiaw shows the rappers and their environment with an intimacy whose cinematographic finesse provides space and context for the thorny conflicts between music and politics, street and state.

Les Contes du Cockatoo 2020 ( 8)

Four ordinary characters who experience extraordinary things.

SALVIA ROSMARINUS 2024 ( 10)