The Hollywood
Reporter has reported (HERE) that the Cohen Media Group has picked up the U.S.
distribution rights to Abderrahmane
Sissako’s new film Timbuktu, which tells of how people living in northern Mali deal with, and eventually resist a jihadist takeover by some militant Islamic rebels, and which just recently got rave reviews when it was shown in competition
at the Cannes Film Festival, which officially
ended this weekend.

According to John Kochman, who is executive vice president of Cohen Media, “Timbuktu is a movie that finds
the raw, emotional heart in a political conflict and holds it up to the
light.“

He further
went on to praise Sissako and his film saying that: “Abderrahmane
Sissako’s calm, objective eye paints characters who are all-too-real performing
acts both heroic and hard to understand. He truly is one of Africa’s great
filmmakers and Timbuktu is a masterpiece of storytelling, filmmaking, and human
compassion. We are proud to be bringing it to a wider audience in America.”

As of yet, no release
date has been announced, but most likely, it will be sometime later this year.