Ballaké Sissoko, Une Histoire de kora

Ballaké Sissoko, Kora Tales

Oléo films, France, 2023.

Written and directed by Lucy Durán and Laurent Benhamou

World-renowned, award-winning Malian musician Ballaké Sissoko takes us on an unprecedented journey on the trail of his instrument, the kora, a uniquely West African 21-string harp, whose origins are surrounded by legend. Shot on location, the journey begins at Ballaké’s home in Bamako, capital of Mali where he was born and raised. 

We hear his talented group of young kora students play sublime music on his rooftop, songs he has taught them from the traditional repertoire of his father, an outstanding kora player who was from Gambia but settled in Mali in the 1960s, during the early years of its independence.

Next door, we watch Ballaké’s cousin Amadou demonstrating the complex craft of making a kora by hand, from local materials. Together with Amadou, Ballaké visits Sibi for the first time - the majestic rocky hills west of Bamako, where the great Mali empire began in 1235, when twelve kingdoms united under the ruler Sunjata Keita.

Ballaké then travels further westwards to southern Senegal, his ancestral homeland, which he has not visited since he was a child. He traverses the beautiful Casamance river to drop in on a family of kora players who keep alive the old traditional style and repertoire of the instrument, and they provide him with colourful tales about its origin.

Inspired by this encounter, Ballaké plays the kora late into the night, to the sounds of crickets and night birds, before visiting a sacred location in Gambia where according to myth, the kora was first invented by invisible spirits, the djinns.

Narrated by celebrated Malian rapper Oxmo Puccino (real name Abdoulaye Diarra) who has worked extensively with Ballaké, this film takes us for the first time to the heart of the kora tradition, through the gaze of one of its most gifted musicians.

Language: Bambara, Mandinka, French. With English and French subtitles.