In “Twist in Bamako”, Robert Guédiguian, the most Marseille of French filmmakers, tells a story of love impossible in Mali in the first years of independence.
Is the twist soluble in the socialist revolution? The question might seem trivial, but it is one of the themes of Robert Guédiguian’s new film. Samba, a young committed revolutionary, would like to be able to reconcile his communist ideal with a taste for American music, and his budding love for Lara, a young girl met in a Bambara village and forcibly married. But in the independent Mali of 1962, traditions still die hard. And the new socialist power would like the youth to focus on land reform.
The Marseillais Robert Guédiguian affirms to have put a lot of himself in the character of Samba: his revolutionary ideals, his taste for motorcycles and dance: ” Yes, the character of Samba is me. This history of class struggles, this struggle for the condition of women, against feudalism, against patriarchy. This story is mine. Obviously, I claim that the history of the world is mine. I am thinking of the universality of the class struggle, this fight between the rich against the poor, and I will always defend that idea. “
Robert Guédiguian proves that by investing in another territory, Africa, and another temporality, his cinema remains the same, imbued with humanism and an infinite tenderness for youth and revolutionary ideals.
► Find our interview with Robert Guédiguian on the show All the cinemas in the world