Guimba is the ruler of a mythical African nation in pre-colonial times, but several audiences have had little difficulty in reading the movie as a parable about the historical events that occurred in nation of Mali, where the dictator Moussa Traore was overthrown after sponsoring a reign of terror.
The film’s writer and director, Cheick Oumar Sissoko, was active in the underground movement against Traore, and has created a riotously colorful, irreverent satire on the ways of tyrants, told in the style of the “griots,” or village storytellers, who are part of West African tradition.
(Directed by Cheick Oumar Sissoko, 1996, 93 min, Canada, documentary, English)
WINNER Grand Prize - Etalon de Yennega - FESPACO 1995.
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