Life on Earth is a gorgeously conceived cinema-poem contemplating life at the end of the century in the first and third worlds—by a filmmaker with a foot planted in each. Sissako begins his autobiographical rumination in flashy Paris stores, then segues to Sokolo, a small village in Mali, where he rides about on a bicycle talking to various citizens and flirting with a local woman who might be the most beautiful and enchanting on all the earth. Cameraman Jacques Besse is a master of color and of observation: animals stroll across the frame, the men of the town sit for hours each day in the sun, the local radio show discusses issues of Negritude, and everything passes slowly. . . as the clock ticks toward New Year 2000.