alr

Nyamanton

No English subtitles
Screening on Film
Directed by Cheick Oumar Sissoko.
With Chaka Diarra, Alikaou Kanté, Maciré Kanté.
Mali, 1986, 16mm, color, 94 min.
Bambara with French subtitles.

For his first feature-length fiction film, Sissoko focuses on children, like many filmmakers before him who seek to address with delicacy a society's injustices (de Sica, Kiarostami, Ghobadi).  A young brother and sister try to balance school and their menial jobs in order to be able to continue their education and so that their impoverished family can make ends meet. The film exquisitely balances the grinding poverty of the world of these children with moments of play and affection as they interact with friends and family. Like all of Sissoko's subsequent work, Nyamanton has its didactic moments, but the rest is given over to observing the lives of these children with simple directness and with moments of comedy and grace.

Part of film series

Read more

The 16th Geneviève McMillan Reba Stewart Fellow: Cheick Oumar Sissoko

Current and upcoming film series

Read more

Harvard Undergraduate Cinematheque

Read more

Albert Serra, or Cinematic Time Regained

Read more

Wang Bing’s Youth Trilogy

Read more

The Shochiku Centennial Collection

Read more

Planet at 50

Read more

The Yugoslav Junction Continues!

Read more

Theo Anthony, Subject to Review

Read more

The Ideal Cinematheque of the Outskirts of the World

Read more

From the collection – Satyajit Ray