Festival in the Desert
World Village

How you'll wish you were in the middle of the Malian Sahara, four hours from Timbuktu by car. This music documentary captures the Tuareg equivalent of Woodstock, a weeklong celebration of incredible-sounding rhythms and heartfelt collaborations. The live material with indigenous groups such as the Tikrit Ensemble and Tinariwen, who have emerged out of the desert's nomadic tribes, is jaw-droppingly good, and world-beat superstar Oumou Sangare and African bluesman Ali Farka Touré are also on hand to lend their support and participate in a few jam sessions, which strike the universal chord more often than not. Depending on whether you're a dyed-in-the-mudcloth world beatnik or an exotica-minded rawk fan, you'll either appreciate or rue the appearance of onetime "Golden God" Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin fame and his equally European younger sidekick, guitarist Justin Adams. It's just that it pales in comparison to the much, much deeper African rhythms featured here.
-- Eric Arnold