Robert Guédiguian the universalist plunges into the history of Malian socialism in the 1960s

The film focuses on the ferment of Mali in the early 1960s: the French settlers have left, and a regime steeped in the socialist ideal is trying to set itself up, under the leadership of the country’s first president since independence, Modibo Keïta. Son of a rich trader, Samba (Stéphane Bak) is a convinced revolutionary, but his dreams will confront the realities of a traditionalist country. All against the backdrop of the arrival of the twist in the “maquis”, the night bars of Bamako, a Western influence which young people love but whose leaders are wary … just like his love for Lara (Alice Da Luz) , a young girl forcibly married in a village.

“When we see this film, do we see that it was a white man who made it? Me, I’m sure not!”, said Robert Guédiguian. “My point of view is not a White point of view, it is my point of view (and) what matters is the result”. If questions of “cultural appropriation” and the universality of creation have agitated the art world in recent months, the 68-year-old filmmaker wants to be “extremely clear “:” Humanity is universal, (…) strictly identical everywhere, particular cultures are only one form “.

As such, Guédiguian, Marseillais of Armenian origin, does not arise “a second” the question of legitimacy: “This story, I claim it is mine, I claim it. Because it belongs to everyone”. The author of Marius and Jeannette and Champ-de-Mars walker, wants “look at the enslavements that remain“that he “try to hunt, in Africa as in France”. Claiming “Marxist”, he shows here the pro-French commitment of traders who fear losing their advantages in the socialist revolution.

“My story is not that of the northern districts of Marseille or the districts of Paris where I live today. My story is the history of the world, I am touched by what is happening among the Uyghurs today. hui, as I was touched as a kid by the assassination of (Patrice) Lumumba “, hero of Congo’s independence, at the age of 35. Fascinated by the history of Pan-African socialism, and “the idea of ​​global emancipation” that he wore, Guédiguian was keen to bring to light this little-explored period: “it is worth it to look back on these paths which are closed today, but only ask to be reopened”.

Shot for security reasons in Senegal, in Bambara and in French, with a mainly local team, the film also features actors living in France, “and who for once are offered to play their fathers or their grandfathers rather than drug sellers”, than in West Africa. It has been doubled in Bambara and Wolof to be offered to local TVs who wish it.

Twist in Bamako is also a dance film, imagined as a soundtrack for the shots of Malian Malick Sidibé, essential photographer who died in 2016.

Guédiguian, he would dream of printing on leaflets a line of the main character, paraphrasing Lenin: “Socialism is the Soviets, electrification, plus the twist!”“The whole workers’ movement, the socialists, the communists, the trade union movement, have sinned for lack of sense of celebration, spectacle and laughter”, he regrets: “the twist is extremely effective in achieving an ideological victory”.

Gender: Drama, historical
Director: Robert Guédiguian
Actors: Alicia Da Luz Gomes, Stéphane Bak, Issaka Sawadogo
Country : France, Senegal
Exit : January 5, 2022
Distributer : Diaphana Distribution

Synopsis: 1962. Mali tastes its newly acquired independence and the youth of Bamako dance whole nights on the twist from France and America. Samba, the son of a wealthy merchant, saw the revolutionary ideal body and soul: he traveled the country to explain the virtues of socialism to the peasants. It is there, in Bambara country, that Lara emerges, a young girl married by force, whose beauty and determination upset Samba. Samba and Lara know their love is threatened. But they hope that, for them as for Mali, the sky will clear up …