jack-52382
This film's story was, for me, a chef's salad where it should have been a whole tomato. Or a steak, perhaps. It purports to be the story of a small village into which the Taliban, or generically "the jihadists" move in to run the show. There are scenes of these men barking orders to the villagers about what to wear or what not to do, but the center moves to a man, his wife and their 12yo daughter living in a tent on the village outskirts, and another man who fishes with nets in a river which he seems to think is his own property. Then there are the pointless scenes of the jihadists spinning cookies in a Toyota pickup. And the crazy woman in the village. And, and....none of these events seem to bear a relationship with any other. Eventually a murder is committed which has absolutely nothing to do with the jihadists having taken control of the village, except they mete out a death sentence to the confessed murderer. There is never any suspense concerning the man's fate so this isn't really a spoiler alert, but after the jihadists gun him down they all jump in their pickups and take off, leaving the viewer with the impression they won't be back. After watching, I read a few other reviews extolling its message and power, but to me it was an unsatisfying mish-mash of unconnected events. None of the jihadist dictums were a surprise, not adding anything to what we've known for many years about these sick thugs and their perversion of the Muslim faith. But what bothered me more than anything else was that "Timbuktu" was absolutely devoid of emotion.
drhupp
This movie was very slow paced, something that swayed me to dislike the film. One of the reasons it was so slow was because not everyone spoke the same language, so there was always a need for a translator in a conversation. This movie takes place in the Middle of the desert in Mali, where there is a group of jihadi extremists who are controlling the area. The extremists run a tight law system that goes too far for no reason, an example being that there is no singing allowed in the city. After a girl was caught singing, she got 80 lashes to the back, quite over the top. But I think that the producers of this film were able to show what a real extremist group would be like, always having guns, enforcing every little thing to the way they see it best. The way the movie ended was sorta random and quick, it didn't give me the closure that I wanted to see. The Dad dies, then the mom shows up and gets shot right away, then after that there's a "high-speed" scooter chase. And then we don't get to see how that ends, which aggravated me a little.
brszasz
Timbuktu was a very interesting movie. Overall I thought the movie was a little bit boring. Throughout the movie, there were very few excited events, and when those exciting events occurred, they seemed to drag those events out for a really long time. I thought it was an interesting motive to kill someone, because that guy killed one of your cows. I understand there was a lot of built up tension, but that was something kind of ridiculous to put someone over to actually kill a guy. When he finally did kill the guy, he tried to get up over and over again after clearly being killed. The ending was very confusing as well. It seemed as if the entire movie went too slow, but the ending went too fast. It was hard to understand exactly what was going on at the end of the movie. There were many unanswered questions that remained unanswered. The movie could have been much better if they actually answered at least some of those questions.
Hellmant
'TIMBUKTU': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five)A French-Mauritanian drama flick, about citizens of Timbuktu; that are terrorized by Jihadists. The film centers around a cattle herder, and his family, that lives outside the city limits. It was directed by Abderrahmane Sissako; and written by Sissako and first time screenwriter Kessen Tall. The movie received almost unanimously positive reviews from critics; and it was nominated for an Oscar, for Best Foreign Language Film. It's very slow-paced, but ultimately insightful.Kidane (Ibrahim Ahmed) is a cattle herder; that lives with his family in the dunes of Timbuktu. He and his wife, Satima (Toulou Kiki), are happy living away from the city; due to the violent harassment of the Jihadist control there. One day their twelve-year-old son, Issan (Mehdi Ag Mohamed), accidentally angers a local fisherman; who in turn murders one of their cows. This causes the family's peaceful life to be forever changed. The film is a very interesting look at that way of life; but it spends a little too much time introducing lots of different characters. The main story, about Kidane and his family, is where the filmmakers should have kept their focus (I think). It does seem like a very insightful, and educational, examination though; on how the different people of that area are affected by the Jihadist control there. The movie is definitely well made, but it's far from a perfect film (unlike what the critics would have you believe).Watch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: https://youtu.be/EuKmXpjFt-k
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