Mele is a woman in a failing marriage. In her courtyard, which she shares with her neighbours, a court has been set up. This court in Bamako, the capital of Mali, sets out to denounce the IMF and the World Bank for the 'pauperisation' of Africa. Abderrahmane Sissak, the filmmaker and director gave IMF and World Bank documents to real life lawyers and judges, who make statements on the unequal effects of globalisation and the current capitalist system for African States.
In an interview with Offscreen.com available here he states that he wanted to raise consciousness on these issues, choosing a trial form to make visible the issues:
Moreover when one is brought to speak about the crisis of a continent in the form of a trial, it means quite simply that the word of the other is not heard. A true trial against institutions is improbable, not for saying that they are wrong, since a trial basically seeks the truth, but because nothing was set up to say that the policy imposed by these institutions for 25 years have failed. They agree themselves to say that they are a failure because Africa is increasingly poor and more and more ill. The fact that one cannot dispute these policies, shows already a certain form of injustice and that an artist must invent this trial.
An intellectual movie interweaving the realities of every day life in Mali.
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