Timbuktu (2014 film) The film was named the twelfth "Best Film of the 21st Century So Far" in 2017 by The New York Times. The film looks at the brief occupation of Timbuktu, Mali by Ansar Dine. Parts of the film were influenced by a 2012 public stoning of an unmarried couple in Aguelhok. It was shot in Oualata, a town in south-east Mauritania. The film explores the denizens of the city of Timbuktu, Mali, in West Africa, who are living under strict Sharia law around the year 2012. The city is under the occupation of extremist Islamists bearing a jihadist black flag.
Timbuktu spelling of Timbuktu has varied a great deal: from "Tenbuch" on the Catalan Atlas (1375), to traveller Antonio Malfante's "Thambet", used in a letter he wrote in 1447 and also adopted by Alvise Cadamosto in his "Voyages of Cadamosto", to Heinrich Barth's "Timbúktu" and "Timbu'ktu". French spelling often appears in international reference as "Tombouctou". As well as its spelling, Timbuktu's toponymy is still open to discussion. At least four possible origins of the name of Timbuktu have been described: The validity of these theories depends on the identity of the original founders of the city: as recently as 2000, archaeological