Bamako

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

The serious accusations are leavened by the moments of brimming, illogical, intimate neighborly dailiness the filmmaker also captures with warmth and infectious high spirits.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

As demonstrated in his previous film, a plangent snapshot of subsistence called "Waiting for Happiness," Sissako is a poet, and the filmmaking in this new picture is stuff of a deserving laureate.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

One reason Bamako feels like a blast of sanity is that the theoretical debates about the state of the world, particularly Africa and more particularly Mali, are only half of its agenda. The other half, broadly speaking, is the life of everyday Africans.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

Bamako is something different: a work of cool intelligence and profound anger, a long, dense, argument that is also a haunting visual poem.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Sissako has an unusual camera eye, patient and alert to the ebb and flow of both the courtroom sequences and the outside scenes. The music is wonderful as well.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Never mind Hollywood's big-star, big-budget hand-wringing about Africa - Bamako is the real thing.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

Bamako is an attack on globalization that is endlessly cogent, confrontational -- and, best of all, as captivating as it is illuminating.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

Sissako makes his point: Africa's best treasure is its humanity.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

A barrel of laughs, this ain't. But it's a fearless high-wire act, grim and witty, confrontational and self-mocking. Its message may be dire, but Bamako is a feat of intellectual and cinematic daring that will leave your brain buzzing.

Variety Deborah Young

Rather miraculously, picture succeeds in painlessly educating its viewers about global politics and economics while it describes contemporary Africa with freshness and clarity.

Empire David Parkinson

Far from an easy watch, either in terms of its hard-hitting content, seemingly haphazard structuring or its dense symbolism. But this makes sense of the political intricacies by balancing the rhetoric and statistics with everyday occurrences that give the iniquities and inadequacies a human face.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Bamako, with Sissako's poetic blend of the humdrum and the theoretical, is altogether fascinating. 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.

New York Post V.A. Musetto

Credit Sissako for entertainingly blending serious international issues with the daily comings and goings of village life. A bit more Glover wouldn't have hurt - but you can't have everything.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Heated speeches about the International Monetary Fund, debt relief and global responsibility may not sound like your idea of Friday-night entertainment, but Sissako makes a strong case.

San Francisco Chronicle Walter Addiego

A powerful polemic leavened with moments of beauty and humor.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

No one can deny the powerful reality that weaves its way through Bamako.

Village Voice Nathan Lee

Bamako brings relief from the latest round of Africa chic in the media, reversing "the flood of information that flows one way." It colors the Africa Problem from the inside out.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

The film feels oddly slack and inert, livened only by testimony better suited to another forum.