I’m not particularly religious myself, which somehow makes the impact even stronger when a group of Jihadists arrive and begin enforcing Sharia law in this setting. I don’t want to get into politics here, but what unfolds over the next ninety minutes or so contains some of the most shocking and upsetting scenes I've encountered in a film based on real events. It’s presented effectively as a docu-drama and follows different storylines showing how the residents suffer under this unwelcome new authority. To give you an idea, one man receives twenty lashes for playing football—it’s been outlawed. A woman is punished far more severely simply for being in a room with another man. Even laughing inappropriately or smoking cigarettes are forbidden for some people. The rules are strict for men and even more controlling and disrespectful for women, reinforcing a historical cultural perspective that views them as property to be used as needed. More disturbingly, when a cattle herder kills a fisherman who has killed one of his cows—a cow believed to bring life—it highlights the “eye-for-an-eye” mentality prevalent here, along with the concept of "blood money." The ritualistic burial of two people in the sand so their community can stone them is deeply unsettling. The film portrays situations that seem unbelievable at every turn. While the drama isn't overtly graphic and the acting might not particularly impress—with perhaps an exception for Ibrahim Ahmed’s portrayal of the cowman, “Kidane”—the overall cast effectively conveys a sense of oppression affecting both this community and those watching. The judicial process, such as it is, seems absurd if it weren’t so arbitrary. It does emphasize the ridiculousness and brutality to make its point, and there's very little attempt at balance, which leads me to believe that director Abderrahmane Sissako has a personal agenda here. Is he trying to share his own story? There can certainly be advantages to a stable society that respects the principles of faith; however, when those principles dictate you can’t even play football, it might be time to question whether God doesn't have more important concerns. That's the central issue—so many actions are performed in His name, just as they were in the world of Christianity a thousand years ago and paganism before that. Shouldn’t we have learned something about extreme zealotry and rigid beliefs by now? It’s not an easy film to watch, but it certainly makes you appreciate the benefits of a secular society and its freedoms—however imperfect they may be.

Source on TMDB