While film is a great form of entertainment, one of its other wonders is that it exposes people to worlds they may not otherwise experience. This is the case for the Academy Award nominated film Timbuktu. It is a frustrating type of film because those who need to see it probably won't ever see it because it doesn't make them feel good or entertained. It does something worse! It makes you feel just a tiny bit more educated.
The setting of Timbuktu is a nice quiet Muslim village until it is overtaken by Muslim extremists. The film is basically this village's attempt to live their life as before they were overtaken. It has a main storyline that involves the shooting of a cow that has tragic consequences. This story is successful, but what I found really interesting about this film were the secondary characters attempting to do small things they used to be able to do such as play soccer and listen to music only to be punished by their village's new "laws".
Timbuktu does a great job at showing the clear division between your every day average Muslims trying to live a normal life and the extremists. This is important because it is something that we don't see in American media or culture often. But even the extremists are given some dimension. They work to enforce strict laws that they aren't even able to always keep.
While Timbuktu does have its moments that are both funny and entertaining, it also does something that movies all too often do not accomplish. It helps us understand.
8 out of 10
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