Film puts World Bank and IMF on trial

13 February 2007

A new film by independent Malian director demands accountability from the IFIs for their impacts in Africa. Staged in a typical family courtyard in Mali, "Bamako" beautifully documents a people's trial of the World Bank and IMF.

In his latest movie, "Bamako", independent filmmaker, Abderrahmane Sissako, puts the World Bank and IMF on trial for their impacts in Africa.  The courtroom is a typical urban family compound in Mali's capital city, where people from all walks of life take the stand to testify against the global financial giants.  Through song, soliloquy and silence, the witnesses express outrage at the job losses, weakened public services, crippling debt, and devastating poverty for which they hold the IFIs largely responsible.

Sissako has, on film, done what many have tried to do in reality: to challenge the immunity of the international financial institutions and to take them to task for the impacts of their operations over the past half century. As the filmmaker explains, "It’s obviously an improbable scenario: to put on trial these two institutions that nobody can hold accountable. But that’s the point. In this little courtyard we make the impossible possible.”

The film will be screening this week at New York City's Film Forum.  For more information go to the FilmForum website.

Read a review of the film in the New York Times.