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DANCING THE TWIST IN BAMAKO
April 29, 2023 - April 30, 2023
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Sat, Apr 29 at 4pm and 7pm • Sun, Apr 30 at 2pm
IU Fine Arts Theater • Purchase Tickets
The 1960s were a time of change everywhere, and that includes Bamako, the capital city of Mali, a nation only recently independent from French colonial rule. Samba, a young, idealistic socialist, works toward creating a more just nation by day and dances with girlfriend Lara to Otis Redding, and the Supremes by night. Filmmaker Robert Guediguian was inspired by the vibrant images, patterns, and compositions of famed Malian photographer, Malick Sidibé. Lara’s orange silk dress and Samba’s dazzling white suit, shot against the striped backdrop of their dance club and the black and white checked dance floor they cut up — all suggest that change is coming rapidly, and that life is for living.
France/Senegal • in French and Bambara w/subtitles
Nimbly captures both the kind of youthful ecstasy Wordsworth recalled and the disillusionment that so often follows… Beautiful… Elegant, kinetic, color-filled frames…conjure a lost but nonetheless vivid moment of bliss.
– A.O. Scott, The New York Times