An Opera of the World

'An Opera of the World’ is based on ‘Bintou Were, a Sahel Opera’, which narrates an eternal immigration drama. The opera, filmed in Bamako, in 2007, serves a mirror for Diawara to build an aesthetic and reflexive story, through song and dance, about the current and yet timeless drama of emigration between North and South, and refugee crises. The film ponders about the realities of cultural encounters through the concepts of métissage and hybridity. The success and limits of fusing African and European perspectives are tested by interlacing performances from ‘Bintou Were, a Sahel Opera’, past and present archival footage of migrations, classic European arias and interviews with European and African intellectuals, artists and social activists.

Dela