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.
Fall of Timbuktu (2012) of the month. In June 29, Ansar Dine was reported to have taken control of Timbuktu after MNLA fighters followed their deadline to leave town. Residents confirmed the MNLA was no longer present, as the Islamist movements confirmed their control over the entire northern Malian region of Azawad. At the same time, UNESCO responded to appeals from the Malian government in Bamako to declare several sites within the city as "endangered" because it "aims to raise cooperation and support for the sites threatened by the armed conflict in the region." On 30 June 2012, a local journalist said that he