When news emerged three years ago that a businessman had bought the Soudan Cine, one of Bamako's grandest movie theatres which ceased operation in 1994, cinephiles feared the worst. Many disused cinemas in the Malian capital have fallen into the hands of entrepreneurs since the government denationalised its film industry a decade ago. Most have been transformed into dance halls or schools or left to rot.
But Aliou Tomota has other plans: the former livestock trader - who now leads a conglomerate that runs printing houses, hotels, civil engineering firms and a transportation company - wants to return the Soudan to its roots, making it a state-of-the-art cinematheque with digital screening facilities.
'He decided to preserve it. He tells me when he was young he went to this theatre,' says Abderrahmane Sissako, the Mauritarian-born, Malian-raised filmmaker whom Tomota recruited to oversee the project. 'A lot of people [in Bamako] know the Soudan Cine, it's at the centre of the city and it's a very beautiful place. Now people hear that I want to open this theatre again, they said they could help - not just European people but also local banks.
'Tomota is a Malian company and it's very important - but cinema is also a big family, and I would be happy if some person from Hong Kong could buy [the naming rights] of one seat in the cinema, for example,' the filmmaker says.
However much Sissako wishes to see a galaxy of multinational sponsors at the Soudan, local participation is crucial. Doubling up as the pilot project for Sissako's Cinemas for Africa scheme, the new Soudan Cine is more than just a cineplex: the theatre is to become Mali's and western Africa's premier film hub, with screenings of works by Malian and African directors.
'Bamako has only one [fully operational] cinema and it shows only blockbusters,' says the 48-year-old at the Majestic Hotel in Cannes, where he hosted a press conference for the Cinemas for Africa during the city's annual film festival. 'The first objective is to give another choice to the audience, to show different movies. Cinema is very rich and there are different genres; it's about giving the citizens of Bamako the chance to see, for example, once a year, a week of Japanese films. Cinema is a window that shows seasons of change across the world - it's not just to show American films.'
