This documentary offers a timely warning
that Mali’s cultural and musical heritage is increasingly threatened. (Review
by Patrick Compton)
“Without our music, everything is lost” is
the severest of warnings. Even more worrying in this documentary by Paul
Chandler is the lack of any real encouragement that current trends can be
reversed.
I was drawn to this movie because I love
the music of one of Mali’s greatest sons, Ali Farka Touré, and DIFF also hosted
one of the best movies of the current century, Timbuktu (2014), which portrayed, among other things, the threat
that militant Islam posed to Mali’s musical culture.
This documentary doesn’t remotely belong in
the same category of achievement as Abderrahmane Sissako’s masterpiece, but it
does represent a useful reminder that Mali’s traditional music, which is an
essential component of its culture, remains under threat.
The film is narrated by one of the late
Touré’s fellow musicians, Afel Bocoum, who notes not only the threat posed by
religious extremism – with jihadist invaders from the north banning music – but
also concerns that modernity in its many guises, including economic and
cultural globalisation, is putting the increasingly poor nation’s traditional
culture under severe pressure.
Chandler took three years to film this
movie in remote locations, documenting traditional cultural practices and
interviewing musicians who could be among the last to play their unique
instruments.
The doccie points out that rap is already
the most popular musical genre in the country, and that traditional music and
some of the instruments it is played on are becoming endangered.
If traditional music is Mali’s essential
cultural glue, unifying the otherwise disparate nation, the worry remains as to
how long it can continue to play this role.
One mild disappointment is the quality of some
of the film’s sound recordings. Whilst the footage of the various cultural
practices is vivid enough, the accompanying music is not as clear or as loud as
it should have been.
It
Must Make Peace will be screened for the last time
at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre on Sunday, July 29 at 16h00. - Patrick Compton
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