Dancing the Twist in Bamako

Dancing the Twist in Bamako is a film that transports us to the 1960s, when Mali was a newly independent nation full of hope and challenges. The film follows Samba (Bakary Sangaré), a young socialist who works for a progressive government that aims to create a more just and egalitarian society. He meets Lara (Aïssa Maïga), a spirited woman who flees from her arranged marriage to join him in Bamako, the capital city. Together, they enjoy dancing to rock and roll music imported from the West, along with their friends and comrades.

The film, directed by Robert Guédiguian, based on his own screenplay, is a celebration of youth, music, and love. The film captures the energy and optimism of that era, with colorful costumes, lively songs, and dynamic choreography. The film also depicts the political and social realities of Mali at that time, such as poverty, corruption, tribalism, colonialism, and coups d'état.

The film's main appeal is the chemistry between Sangaré and Maïga, who deliver charming and passionate performances. They make us care about their characters' dreams and struggles. The supporting cast is also excellent, especially Ibrahim Koma as Bakary Keita (Samba's friend) , Ariane Ascaride as Madame Lenoir (Lara's mentor) , Jean-Pierre Darroussin as Pierre Lenoir (a French journalist) , Gérard Meylan as Colonel Traoré (a military leader) , and Anissa Allali as Fatoumata (Lara's sister).

Dancing the Twist in Bamako is a film that offers a refreshing and engaging perspective on Mali's history and culture. It is a film that celebrates the power of music and love to overcome adversity.

This is a very confused piece.

One is never quite sure which side the filmmaker is on. Is he on the side of the newlyformed Malian republic with a socialist flavour or on the side of the business people who find the new Republic a problem for their profit margins.

Maybe he isn't on anybody's side but simply painting a realistic picture of the situation in Mali after the French departed in the very early 1960s.

The use of blatantly Parisian actors is a bit weird. The main actor is French Congolese the main actress is Cape Verdean French. Both of them excellent anyway.

Was it impossible to find two Malians as main actors?

Anyway many of the actors in the film are Malians so it isn't such a big crime after all.

The photography side of the operation is very successful as are the costumes and the feeling of the times.

What is not successful is the storyline unconvincing at the best of times. For me also the educated Parisian accent of the two main contenders is quite difficult to swallow.

As part of a wider reflection when a country decides to take a socialist route yes many will not want that and fight it and yes often the new regime will repress those people. In a way in this film it is shown very graphically very clearly.

The final stretch of the film shows the situation in 2012 in northern Mali and shows that the Taliban/jihadist has now enforced Rules which are in their way more Draconian than any of these early 1960s socialist injunctions.

I am not aware of other works by the director here so I have nothing to compare this one with; But I found this plot a little bitty in places Lacking an overall storyline and the finale was really quite cockeyed and trite it seemed to me.

Anyway it was nice to see a film on Mali although I am not sure a French crew is really the best to go and make that there. Maybe Films made about Mali should be made by Malians especially considering the history between those two countries.

Maybe it is still too soon for France to have anything to do with that place especially with the recent Operation Barkhane French military "help " Against the Taliban which was so counter-productive that the government finally asked them to leave replacing them with the Wagner Russian mercenary force a move some might describe as out of the frying pan into the fire ....

This film is totally worth seeing especially if you're interested in African politics or the history of Africa or the history of colonialism...

Robert Guédiguian had already made movies which did not take place in his dear region of Marseille: "une histoire de fous" or "à la place du coeur" ;but he generally kept his usual actors ;like John Cassavetes in America ,he almost always used the same company. Here they have cameos which do not make much sense .

This movie is a horse of a different color: I've seen all his filmography and he's my favorite French living director ; in the first minutes, I felt very desoriented ,in a historical context I'm not familiar with ...

The hero,Samba,is a naive idealist : he does not realize that ,slowly but inexorably , the Independence and the would be socialism which would feed everybody turn into Modibo Keita (first his idol)'s dictatorship ;even after the demonstrations, quelled by main force , who send his own father to jail ; from the very beginning ,he thought that the ancestral traditions would be swept away and forgot that peasants attached great value to their earth ,to their "chef" and to their crops (sharing is unthinkable),there's no question of them giving it up; the forced marriage,even if Samba calls it "rape" , is for these uneducated folks ,the sacred way to continue the lineage .

The Samba /Lara affair, precariously balanced, nearly leads the film into the Romeo /Juliet territory and if the ending does not sink into mawkish melodrama,it's entirely due to the director's (he has nothing to prove) natural feeling for economy and sparseness.

The main problem of the film is that the youth Guediguian shows is very educated and he passes over almost in silence those thousands of children who do not even go to school ;Even today ,only 23% of them are sent to school ;the jump forward of the epilogue (also present in "une histoire de fous" but much more convincing ) seems dishonest,coming from a leftist director such as Guédiguian .

Guédiguian's depiction of ( educated people , I insist) the youth's indoctrination,complete with uniforms for boys and girls, salute to the colors and personality cult , indispensable in a dictatorship-in-the -making is acute;soon the rock (or rather the twist ,as the title reads )will be banned ,as a source of depravity, drugs, brawls , a curse which would spawn a whole generation influenced by this unwholesome "rebel without a cause"

Although flawed, not always convincing, "twist à Bamako" goes well in Guédiguian 's work, one of the rare works in contemporary France which depicts the people -next-to- door,the humble and the poor ; his sincerity and his hope for a better world should not be called into question.

A note on the music: the youth's taste reflects more or less the French one;and in the first half of the sixties, this country was at the beck and call of the Americans : their hits were covers of the Ronettes' "be my baby" or the Crystals ' "da doo ron ron" ;the originals were extremely rare in the records collections in France,let alone in Mali !!!