Guédiguian twists love and emerging socialism in Bamako

• “Twist in Bamako” is the story of two young people in love at the start of Mali's independence in 1962, then torn between political ideals and thirst for life.

• This film, at the same time beautiful, generous, but painful, questions the failure of socialism.

• Robert Guédiguian delivers this committed work in parallel with the release of his book

  "Will the tomorrows sing again?"

  ".

Robert Guédiguian has temporarily left Marseille to film in Africa. But the director of

has kept all his bite and his tenderness: 

shows a Malian youth torn between thirst for life and revolutionary ideals while the country has just obtained its independence in 1962.

His meeting with a beautiful villager on the run after being forcibly married offends the certainties of a young spokesperson for the new government.

"It was the

exhibition

by photographer Malik Sidibé that inspired me in 2017," says the filmmaker to

.

She made me understand to what extent the dance clubs of Bamako were linked to the revolutionary festival and the quest for socialism in several African countries.

»What the viewer of the film also discovers.

A doomed love

“I have always thought that twist and socialism should go together, insists Robert Guédiguian. It is not because we want to change the world that we are austere and that we do not like to have fun. I myself am a very good rock dancer! It is also the director who taught their first steps to the actors Alicia Da Luz Gomez and Stéphane Bak who play the star couple. “Between traditions and the greed of some traders, the revolution only lasted a few years. The Malians did not twist for long, ”sighs Robert Guédiguian.

Twist in Bamako

shows how initially generous ideas ended up being diverted and how the plight of women did not concern men in power at all.

"I would like my film to allow us to question the reasons for this failure," insists the filmmaker.

These young people, carried away by issues that go beyond them, touch the spectator for a long time, accomplice of a love that he knows condemned.

A universal narrative

It was in Senegal that Robert Guédiguian shot this drama with superb images.

“Mali was too dangerous,” he says.

We paid great attention to the accuracy of the reconstruction, the dialogues and the attitudes, but what the film tells goes beyond Bamako and even Africa.

It's universal because the hero looks a lot like me when I was twenty.

"

The generosity of Robert Guédiguian's cinema is more evident than ever in this overwhelming work. 

asks for the title of his fascinating book published by LLL editions last November.

proves that his films always sing beautiful melodies.

Movie theater

"Gloria Mundi": Ariane Ascaride and Robert Guédiguian celebrate the family in their own way (committed)

Movie theater

Cannes Film Festival: Robert Guédiguian "sometimes has the impression of not making French cinema"

• Cinema outings

• Mali

• Bamako

• Movie theater

• Africa

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