Life on Earth

A rejoinder to the West's millennial hysteria, this beautiful feature debut follows writer/director Sissako from France to his father's Malian hometown, where the locals observe the developed world's excitement over the changing of the digits, relayed over the radio, with a casual interest while life goes on otherwise as normal. The film is quietly contemplative, overlaying scenes of apparently relaxed rural habitude with Sissako's occasional voice-over musing on the fate and fears of post-colonial Africa. Dramatic it ain't, the postmaster's mixed fortunes with the town's telephone being the nearest thing to a narrative motif. Among others the film quotes the Martinique writer Aimé Césaire, while simultaneously celebrating the gentle rhythms and colours of the present, typified by Anouar Brahem's delightful music.