The Cinematheque

Vancouver Premiere

“An auspicious debut … A constantly absorbing thriller, delivered with a pulse-pounding thrust … Coulibaly is promising and intriguing new voice.”

Pamela Pianezza, Variety

When 20-year-old Ladji, a minibus driver in Bamako, is passed over for promotion, he turns to smuggling drugs between Mali and neighboring countries to provide for himself and save his sister from prostitution. While his rise in the drug trade is as meteoric as Tony Montana’s in Scarface, Wùlu is a more thoughtful, less violent take on the Brian De Palma classic—but no less gripping. This is cinema as immersion: diving deep into the bustling streets of Mali’s capital, first-time writer-director Daouda Coulibaly moves his story along at breakneck speed. Wùlu is an astonishingly assured, spine-tingling thriller; a sobering picture of a once-stable nation threatened by corruption, drug trafficking, and Al-Qaeda; and also a universal tale of a young generation forced to do whatever it takes to get by and find its place in society.