Guimba the Tyrant
1995 film directed by Cheick Oumar Sissoko
Guimba the Tyrant (French: Guimba, un tyran, une époque) is a 1995 Malian comedy drama film in the Bambara language (with some Fula language components), directed by noted Malian director Cheick Oumar Sissoko. The movie shows the rise and fall of a cruel and despotic village chief, Guimba, and his son Jangine in a fictional village in the Sahel of Mali. Some of the storytelling is done through the village griot, and with the film being placed in an old setting, this lends an epic touch to the movie. The exact chronological setting of the movie is difficult to ascertain, since it is set in an isolated village, but the commonly used weaponry shown is the blunderbuss. However, one scene outside the village features a neem tree, a species introduced to Africa in the colonial period. The film has some magical components, including a solar eclipse brought on by magic. Casting was only partially done from professional actors.
The film has well-designed, colorful and exotic props, costumes and sets. It has evoked mixed responses from critics, and been lauded for its visual beauty. Slapstick comedy is present throughout the movie, as is comedy through the actions of the griot.
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The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 1995 film directed by Cheick Oumar Sissoko. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5616413. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1995.
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This entry incorporates text from “Guimba the Tyrant” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.