Bàttu

Unlike Sissoko’s epic films such as La genèse, Bàttu is not set in a fairytale Mali, but in a contemporary African city, Dakar in Senegal. The homeless who inhabit the streets are a thorn in the side of the Minister of Public Health. He orders a large-scale military operation, in which the poor and homeless are shipped out to a village in the countryside. The violence that accompanies this action provokes much resistance, even from the daughter of the minister (a beautiful role by Juliette Ba) and from Saar, a militant blind beggar. Saar manages to organise the poor in the ghettos and whip them up to take action. Under pressure from the campaign, public opinion and his daughter’s disapproval, the minister sees himself forced to beg the banished city dwellers to return. This is a situation which the beggars, to their own surprise, can turn to their financial advantage.In this black comedy, Cheick Oumar Sissoko also confirms his own reputation as a committed film-maker. Bàttu is however more than a political satire: the film also provides a beautiful picture of African urban life, in which politics and superstition are tied up together. It is an ode to the power and wealth of the human spirit.Sissoko managed to put together an impressive cast. The black Portuguese star actor Isaach de Bankolé plays a convincing blind beggar and Hollywood star Danny Glover shines as the charming yet thoroughly corrupt president.