Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Casey Duggan It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Ariella Broughton It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Marva-nova Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

unbiased_movie_critic To me the visual of the film is extremely insipid, savorless, amazingly dull and plainly disappointing! And in that area, someone will have to explain to me how cinematographer Sofian El Fani, who once again reveals himself as an amateur, actually did get a credit for this movie. Very rarely do we see technical challenges. The movie's visualization is so technically repetitive and mind-numbing that it makes the whole movie extremely boring (how many viewers did say they were checking their watch!). Timbuktu's stunning sandy deserts, lakes and caved houses, which should have been splendidly rendered, are regrettably reduced to being consistently filmed with the same elementary shots over and over. It could have been merely OK for a documentary (which the movie was supposed to be BTW). What makes the filming approach so tedious is that Sofian El Fani fails to convey emotions through camera angles (kind of reminded me of La vie d'Adèle where El Fani makes such an excessive use of close-ups that it becomes unbearably repetitive to the viewer).So unless there was a political move to credit Tunisian film crew members, such as El Fani, (Original Score award to Amine Bouhafa was well deserved though), there is no technical basis whatsoever for him receiving this award for best cinematography. Globally, this film probably moved Western World viewers -- that's why it actually got credited--, but it no manner does it contribute to cinema or art.

Cameron Crawford This film was rather slow paced, with hints of fast action and violence thrown into the mix. This film chose to show very stretched out scenes, for example, after Kidane kills Amadou, the scene where he walked across the water was very long. Even though it slightly bored me, it showed the struggle that Kidane had after he did such a difficult task. I enjoyed the eerie silences of the small Malian town. The camera pan overs of the town, while an Islamic Radicalist is telling the citizens what they cannot do according Jihad. It took me by surprise the things that the citizens could not do, including playing soccer and sitting in front of your house. Speaking of not being allowed to play soccer, some of the local boys play an imaginary game of soccer, where they played on a field, and played with a ball that was not actually there. I found this scene very powerful because I don't know what I would do if I were placed under such harsh rules such as these. Another part of this movie that was eye opening was the scene where Amadou killed the cow, GPS, just for walking in his nets. Since the nets were Amadou's way of life and production for his family, he felt justified to kill the sow for invading his life. In America, something like this would rarely ever happen, since there is a system of law that is meant to settle most disputes such as these out. Since there is not a system like that in Mali, they result to violence, which clearly did not work out well for both parties involved. If Amadou getting killed by Kidane was not bad enough, Kidane was killed by the Islamic Radicalists for killing another man. Overall, this movie showed me how strict the rules are in West Africa, and how horrible a certain group can be to the citizens in the area.

popcorninhell Timbuktu won the Francois Chalais Award at Cannes in 2014 and was nominated for Best Foreign language film at the 2015 Academy Awards. It's easy to see why. Not only is it a beautiful, serene and well- made film but it also has the fortitude to take on radical Islam in a brash, yet compassionate way. The fact that this film and director Abderrahmane Sissako has been readily accepted by the western world is not only evidence that audiences are willing to see films depicting extremism, but are willing to accept a more nuanced version than the caricatures we've conjured in out own minds.There are many stories covering the breadth of Timbuktu, though the main and most powerful tale concerns Kidane (Ahmed) and his family. Kidane, his wife Satima (Kiki) and daughter Toya (Walet Mohamed) live on the outskirts of town as a family of cattle herders. For the most part they're far away from the oppressive world of the Ansar Dine occupation that took over the ancient city of Timbuktu from 2012 to 2013. The only encounters they seem to have is between Jihadist (and driver in training) Abdelkerim (Jafri) who covets Satima. One day a local fisherman kills one of Kidane's herd. From there the Jihadists converge on the family, administering their harsh interpretation of Sharia Law.There are many side stories that decorate the edges of Timbuktu's moral parable. While these stories don't necessarily provide interesting characters they do provide some arresting images. An audacious woman known by the locals as La Chanteuse (Diawara) constantly employs subtle forms of silent protest against the city's occupiers. The simplicity of her protests provide the film with some iconic images. In one scene another woman is given twenty lashes for singing and being in a room with a non-relative man. As she sobs with every stroke of the whip, she begins to sing in a singular act of defiance. Another almost absurd aside includes a group of school children playing soccer without a ball since the sport itself is forbidden.The Jihadists themselves are portrayed as foolish hypocrites; sneaking smoldering puffs of cigarettes smoke and conversing about their favorite soccer teams when no one is watching. When two of them try to enter a mosque with weapons, the local Imam (Cherif) curbs their excesses with sermons on humility, leniency, respect and kindness. Their reactions are often ones of puzzlement, unable to keep up with the Imam's learned discourse.Yet it's moments like these that provide the film's biggest trouble spots. In an interview with Al Jazeera, Sissako explained that he's trying "to speak on behalf of people who are frustrated with this image...this constant degrading image of Islam." To that end Timbuktu is less of the humanist work like his previous Waiting for Happiness (2002) and more like a classroom lecture. Many have latched on to the film's zeitgeist and made comparisons to The Great Dictator (1940). One could no doubt take Chaplin's closing monologue and feel the same sense of erudite pretension. Yet by coming out and saying what the film's about, it stunts the film's natural humanity. We reach points of tragedy, not with a sense of loss but with a narrative coda. One that resembles and argumentative rebuke.The film's discourse also feels unnecessarily chambered when you consider Sissako's larger point. It's easy to charge cruelty and hypocrisy yet the challenge is to examine why the world of Timbuktu is sullied by cruelty and hypocrisy. Issues of displacement, poverty, globalization, colonialism (all of which are familiar themes to Sissako) are completely absent. Nothing is left ambiguous and one could not help but think Timbuktu's international success is predicated on whittling away such themes for the sake of moral clarity. Even Kidane's home-life reeks of the nobility through poverty prosaism that hasn't been in vogue since Maxim Gorky died.Abderrahane Sissako is certainly one of the most talented Cineastes coming out of Africa today. His visual grammar is on par with international contemporaries and his panache for emotional complexity makes him a torchbearer for Cinema's most renowned humanists such as Satyajit Ray, Masaki Kobayashi and Charles Burnett. Thus, Timbuktu ultimately feels like a compromise. The director's desire to connect with a larger (presumably) western audience seems to supersede the film's fertile narrative which is unfortunate. Yet by the merit of the film's imagery and some very potent religious themes, there is forgiveness, there is leniency.

Hellmant 'TIMBUKTU': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five)A French-Mauritanian drama flick, about citizens of Timbuktu; that are terrorized by Jihadists. The film centers around a cattle herder, and his family, that lives outside the city limits. It was directed by Abderrahmane Sissako; and written by Sissako and first time screenwriter Kessen Tall. The movie received almost unanimously positive reviews from critics; and it was nominated for an Oscar, for Best Foreign Language Film. It's very slow-paced, but ultimately insightful.Kidane (Ibrahim Ahmed) is a cattle herder; that lives with his family in the dunes of Timbuktu. He and his wife, Satima (Toulou Kiki), are happy living away from the city; due to the violent harassment of the Jihadist control there. One day their twelve-year-old son, Issan (Mehdi Ag Mohamed), accidentally angers a local fisherman; who in turn murders one of their cows. This causes the family's peaceful life to be forever changed. The film is a very interesting look at that way of life; but it spends a little too much time introducing lots of different characters. The main story, about Kidane and his family, is where the filmmakers should have kept their focus (I think). It does seem like a very insightful, and educational, examination though; on how the different people of that area are affected by the Jihadist control there. The movie is definitely well made, but it's far from a perfect film (unlike what the critics would have you believe).Watch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: https://youtu.be/EuKmXpjFt-k