Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, March 4: THEY WILL HAVE TO KILL US FIRST
Johanna Schwartz’s look at the plight of Mali’s exiled musicians made its bow at SXSW last year. Other screenings have included London, Göteborg, the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Sound + Vision, Hot Docs, Singapore, RIDM, Cork, Calgary, and Durban.
Recognizing that Western audiences are unlikely to know much, if anything, about Mali’s complex recent sociopolitical history, Schwartz wisely, and fittingly, opens her film with a primer via rap, establishing the present, tentative status quo: After decades fighting for their independence, the MNLA, a group of nomadic Touareg of the northern part of Mali, join forces with a jihadist group that inherits arms from Libya after the death of Muammar Gaddafi, and aggressively subjugate the populace under sharia law. One consequence in northern cities like Timbuktu and Gao is the total ban on music in 2012. The film profiles several Malian musicians, including Songhoy Blues, a foursome formed in exile that attracts the attention of Damon Albarn, Brian Eno, and Nick Zinner, fostering international success; Kharia, an acclaimed singer who defies threats to organize a public concert in Timbuktu; Disco, a singer and activist who is actually married to an MNLA leader; and Moussa, a guitarist who returns from exile to try to reunite with his persecuted wife. While not every story thread feels fully fleshed out, suggesting that Schwartz may have benefited from focusing on fewer subjects, the film nevertheless offers a poignant exploration of the impact of censorship and repression on a culture.
