Newsletter 
If you didn’t get the chance to discover Abderrahmane Sissako’s film Timbuktu during our African film series in March, don’t worry!
As every year, the Midnight Sun Film Festival presents a carefully curated selection of high-quality films from around the world, along with unique opportunities to meet the filmmakers behind them.
This year’s edition invites you to (re)discover the work of Mauritanian filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako, one of the festival’s major guests. Two of his landmark films will be screened: Bamako (2006) and Timbuktu (2014), both followed by a Q&A session with the director.
In Bamako, the fragile daily life of a couple falling apart intertwines with a symbolic trial brought by African civil society against the World Bank and the IMF. Timbuktu, meanwhile, takes us into the heart of the Malian dunes, where Kidane lives a peaceful life with his family until the brutal rise of a jihadist regime disrupts their world.
Tickets and the full programme are available from May 25 onwards on the Midnight Sun Film Festival website. Timbuktu is made available to the festival by the French Institute of Finland.
Abderrahmane Sissako (born in 1961) is one of the most celebrated African filmmakers of his generation. Through a style that is both poetic and open to multiple interpretations, his work has earned recognition across the contemporary cinematic landscape. In his films, visual composition and narrative rhythm often take precedence over plot itself, while still engaging with challenging themes such as colonialism, migration, and religion. In 2015, he received the César Award for Best Director for his film Timbuktu.