A court is in session in a small village in Africa, complete with bewigged judges and serious bailiffs high-stepping over goats and squealing kids, but it’s no ordinary defendant and plaintiff in this well-spun allegory. Here African society is the accuser, and the accused are none other than the World Bank and other international institutions, put on trial for countless crimes and exploitation in the world they’re funding, or plundering. Prosecutors and witnesses (played by well-known artists and intellectuals) offer devastating critiques of the true effects of development packages and the “global economy,” while defense attorneys adjust their wigs and shift the blame. Meanwhile, between the rhetorical speeches and hot air, life goes on in the courtyard, as Sissako cleverly jams up his staged, Brechtian allegory with the constant buzz of African reality. “Rather miraculously,” Deborah Young wrote in Variety, “Bamako succeeds in painlessly educating its viewers about global politics and economics while it describes contemporary Africa with freshness and clarity.”

—Jason Sanders

• Written by Sissako. Photographed by Jacques Besse. With Aïssa Maïga, Tiécoura Traoré, Hélène Diarra, Habib Dembélé. (108 mins, In French and Bambara with English subtitles, Color, 35mm, From New Yorker Films)