Guimba the Tyrant (1995)

directed by Cheick Oumar Sissoko
Mali, Burkina Faso
93 minutes
3.5 stars out of 5
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I feel comfortable calling this a fantasy film because I feel like it was deliberately advertised as such from the start and because, although the touches of fantasy are subtle, it has all the trappings of something out of a classic good-over-evil fairytale. Things like the king's sensitivity to the sun, a trait that makes him seem inherently more villainous, and his one fatal weakness that can be exploited to bring him down are taken directly from fantasy narratives in popular fiction.

Whether they take place in the middle of crowded New York, in the Sahel like this one does, or on the moon, for that matter, I'm really fond of fantasy films that make use of the environment and don't use any special effects. There's something that feels more genuine about a movie that has scenes like this where a person does a spell and immediately the effects of it are seen, no CGI magical auras or overly dramatic superpowered fight scenes. Just the use of magic as a tool.

Aesthetically this thing is a treat as well- everything felt so big, all the women wore these large, chunky necklaces and earrings and there's murals on the walls that are huge and outlined with thick black lines so that they look like 2D drawings in a 3D world. It works with the colors of the Sahel so well, and this is something I've noticed a lot about films made in the dry, dusty portions of African countries. People think there's not much color to be seen there other than beige and maybe red but films like Guimba the Tyrant bring out an entire gorgeous spectrum.

I would be remiss to not mention that in context this is an important film as well, because its director, Cheik Oumar Sissoko, is not only a filmmaker but an active politician in his home country of Mali. He started a leftist political party called African Solidarity for Democracy and Independence that grew out of resistance to a military regime in the early 90s, and one of its founding members was directly involved in the overthrow of that government. So, unlike the vast majority of fantasy films in which a tyrannical government is depicted in its most basic form and not explored in-depth, Guimba the Tyrant is not only what it is on the surface but also the product of somebody who is directly involved with changing the system of governance in their country. The African Solidarity political party still holds influence in Mali today.