The film Bamako opens the MSP International Film Festival

Minnesota Film Arts is the group that runs the University Film Society and the Oak Street Cinema. They also produce the Minneapolis/St Paul International Film Festival (MSPIFF) held every April. This year's festival opens with a film from Mali called Bamako. that I can't wait to see. Here's the trailer

Here is AO Scott's capsule review from the NYTimes:

REVIEW SUMMARY
I have never seen a film quite like “Bamako,” Abderrahmane Sissako’s seething, complicated and disarmingly beautiful investigation of Africa’s social, economic and human crises. It is a work of cool intelligence and profound anger, a long, dense, argument that is also a haunting visual poem. Mr. Sissako, a Malian director whose previous films include “Life on Earth” and “Waiting for Happiness,” does not try to engage the pity of the audience through sad stories or terrible images. Rather, he tackles the central question of the film — have the ostensible good intentions of the West, in particular the World Bank and similar institutions, contributed to the impoverishment and demoralization of the continent? — calmly and systematically, though with evident passion. — A. O. Scott, The New York Times

The film's website gives more information on the director and his vision, and on the film's political context. If you click on the French version of the site, you can see that it is being screened all over France, quite often with discussions.
I wish I could find a video clip of Youssou N'Dour's song "Bamako" but I don't have time right now.