Dancing the Twist in Bamako
Director: Robert Guédiguian Run Time: 129 min. Release Year: 2022 Language: French
Starring: Alicia Da Luz Gomes, Bakary Diombera, Diouc Koma, Issaka Sawadogo, Stéphane Bak
Mali, 1960. The youth of Bamako dance the twist to rock and roll music newly imported from the West and dream of political renewal. Samba, a young socialist, falls for spirited Lara during one of his missions to the bush. To escape her forced marriage, she secretly flees with him to the city. But Lara’s husband won’t let them be and the Revolution soon brings painful disillusions as they dream of a future together.
French filmmaker Robert Guédiguian wrote, directed and produced a sizable and acclaimed body of work that explored issues of the working class and immigrant experience in his native country and abroad that included “Marius and Jeannette” (1997), “The Town is Quiet” (2000), “The Last Mitterrand” (2005) and “Don’t Tell Me the Boy Is Mad” (2015).
“The cast is… dynamic and sincere in a way that gives the drama a buoyant teen-movie spirit even as it takes a grave turn.” A.O. Scott, New York Times