There's a very disorienting quality about the cinema of Abderrahmane Sissako. His work is soothing on some level. I imagine the average movie-goer unfamiliar with his films would refer to him as boring, but I turn to his work to relax & chill out in the same way some people turn to a Brian Eno album to calm their nerves (a few years ago his 2002 film
Waiting For Happiness was my go-to movie to fall asleep to).
But after I'm finished watching one of his films it always hits me way later on how depressing some of his content is...
Sure
Bamako (2006) is a beautiful work of art with rich colors, amazing music and lots of great scenic shots, but that movie ends with a guy blowing his brains out (poverty, exploitation, colonialism & oppression are also some of the underlying themes in that film).
On the surface
Waiting For Happiness (2002) is a nice semi-lighthearted film about the day-to-day lives of various residents living in a close-knit African village. But that movie ends on a sad note as well (one of the main character's father figure/legal guardian passes away unexpectedly and he's left alone to fend for himself).
Timbuktu (2015) has tons of spirituality, African art & music but its probably his most harsh/depressing ending to date).
This is what makes Abderrahmane Sissako's movies so unique. They provide a sense of beauty but they also convey the pain & oppression that's sometimes associated with certain parts of Africa.
Thank god this man exists because had the representation of Africa been left to mainstream cinema, we'd still be getting
Dry White Season &
The Power Of One in 2016 and beyond...
VARIOUS SHADES OF AFRICA
Abderrahmane Sissako manages to capture every shade, skin tone and distinct feature that Africa has to offer (sometimes all within one film). This isn't common in most prominent/mainstream African films. Look at any popular/well known film that features Africa as the centerpiece. Nine times out of ten you're going to see one common skin tone, one ambiguous accent, one religion, etc. Africa is the largest continent on the planet and it should be represented as such.
In the last decade, filmmakers like Abderrahmane Sissako (west and central Africa), Mahamat-Saleh Haroun (central Africa) and Abdellatif Kechiche (northern and southern Africa) have taken audiences all over the continent of Africa whereas mainstream/Hollywood films seem to be fixated on just one or two countries in Africa.
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Timbuktu |
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Timbuktu |
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Bamako |
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Le Jeu |
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Le Jeu |
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Waiting For Happiness |
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Waiting For Happiness |
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Waiting For Happiness |
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Waiting For Happiness |
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Tiya's Dream |
"MULTINATIONALISM"
This is sort of an off-shoot of the previous section, but Sissako's films show Africa's connection to obvious countries like America & France (Bamako) to countries not often associated with Africa like Taiwan (Waiting For Happiness) & Russian (October)...
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Waiting For Happiness |
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Bamako |
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Bamako |
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October |
AFRICAN LANDSCAPES
Although it's understandable why so many modern/more well-known African films are rooted in sadness and/or struggle, this still causes outsiders to have a simplistic understanding/borderline misunderstanding of the continent's beauty. I've never stepped foot anywhere near Africa but I know it's filled with an endless amount of beauty that doesn't always make it to the big screen. Abderrahmane Sissako's filmography counters a lot of the misconceptions perpetuated by mainstream cinema's representation of Africa...
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Bamako |
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Life On Earth |
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Le Jeu |
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Le Jeu |
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Timbuktu |
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Tiya's Dream |
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Tiya's Dream |
ABDERRAHMANE'S COLOR PALETTE
The colors in his films are sometimes overlooked which really boggles my mind because the fabrics & patterns he shoots/dresses his actors in are pretty eye-catching in my opinion (and, going back to the first section, notice all the various skin tones from person to person in the pictures below)
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Waiting For Happiness |
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Waiting For Happiness |
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Waiting For Happiness |
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Waiting For Happiness |
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Waiting For Happiness |
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Life On Earth |
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Bamako |
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Bamako |
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Timbuktu |
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Timbuktu |
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Tiya's Dream |
(POSSIBLE) INFLUENCES ON ABDERRAHMANE SISSAKO...
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Bamako/Xala |
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Waiting For Happiness/The Lovers |
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Amrita Sher-Gil |
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Le Jeu/Ivan's Childhood
*This is obviously a common shot but Abderahmane studied film in Russia it's not too far-fetched to imagine that he was influenced by one of Russia's most influential filmmakers |
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Bamako/The Passion O Joan Of Arc |
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October/Ivan's Childhood |
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Waiting For Happiness |
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Bamako/Powaqqatsi |
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Waiting For Happiness/Alphaville |
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Le Jeu/The Seventh Seal |
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October/The Mirror |
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October/Nostalghia |
MEMORIES
The past sometimes plays the background in a nice chunk of Sissako's films which adds a cryptic layer to everything (both
Waiting For Happiness &
Bamako feature very important flashback scenes, while the documentary
Rostov-Luanda is about Sissako himself trying to track down an old friend from the past). Old, yet meaningful, pictures are often seen just off camera or they flash by quickly which makes the viewer more curious...
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Rostov-Luanda |
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Waiting For Happiness |
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Bamako |
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Tiya's Dream |
FAMILY/COMMUNITY...
Putting aside the plots in all of his movies, the documentation of community and day-to-day living is probably the most important element in the cinema of Abderrahmane Sissako...
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Timbuktu |
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Waiting For Happiness |
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Waiting For Happiness |
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Bamako |
The communities in his movies are made up of the following prototypes...
PROUD/STOIC WOMEN
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Bamako |
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Bamako |
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Timbuktu |
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Timbuktu |
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Le Jeu |
PRECOCIOUS CHILDREN
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Le Jeu |
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Le Jeu |
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Waiting For Happiness |
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Waiting For Happiness |
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October |
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Bamako |
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Timbuktu |
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Tiya's Dream |
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Abderrahmene hanging with the young stars of Timbuktu |
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surrounded by children during the filming of Bamako |
WISE ELDERS
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Life On Earth |
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Bamako |
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Bamako |
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Waiting For Happiness |
MUSIC
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Bamako |
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Waiting For Happiness |
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Timbuktu |
DEPRESSION & SADNESS AMONG BLACK MEN
We already touched on this in The Cinema Of Charles Burnett but black men really are the last to be explored when it comes to depression & sadness. Abderrahmane Sissako's exploration of depression in (black) men ranges from fear of aging and the loss of close friends (Waiting For Happiness) to feeling useless and inadequate (Bamako)
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Tiya's Dream |
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Bamako |
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Timbuktu |
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Waiting For Happiness |