NOUAKCHOTT: Timbuktu, which won seven Cesar awards -- France's version of the Oscars -- on Friday tells the story of northern Mali under the control of jihadists, in a foreshadowing of the rise of the Islamic State (IS) group.
Among its haul, it scooped the coveted best film and best director gongs for Mauritania's Abderrahmane Sissako.
The ancient caravan town of the title, often a by-word for otherworldly remoteness, was seized by armed militants who cut a swathe through the west African nation's vast desert for most of 2012.
It was liberated in a military intervention led by former colonial power France, but sporadic violence remains a problem and it is still potentially one of the most dangerous parts of the region for unwary Westerners.
Originally to be filmed in Mali, most of the movie -- the only African nominee for the best foreign film Oscar -- ended up being shot under military protection in Mauritania, Sissako's home country, with just a few scenes captured in Timbuktu itself.
"After a month of filming in Timbuktu, which had already been liberated, there was a suicide bombing outside the garrison," Sissako recently told AFP.
"I thought to myself it was naive to bring a foreign team of French and Belgians there. We would have been easy targets," he said.
According to one of Sissako's friends, newspaper editor Abdelvetah M'Hamed Alamana, the director upped sticks and recreated the mythical city in Mauritania.
Comments
Comments are closed.