The role of the artist is to be the witness of life, timbuktu.

I think that people don't necessary fight with or aren't necessarily beaten by weapons, but it' through their minds and what they think they can do.

Music is human vibration. It makes humans vibrate and takes them someplace else.

Music is one of the most beautiful things in the world. It's universal.

I'm the only Mauritanian filmmaker so it wouldn't make sense to make a film in France. I could shoot outside of my own country if the story was something that called for it. Africa really has to be the reason for me to make a new film.

Every religion has had people going out and killing in the name of it. But that's not what religion is.

Islam never tells people to go out and kill other people.

Being an African filmmaker, Africa is what's important for me. If I were to shot a film in France or elsewhere it would only be because the story that was being told was something that concerned me, and that really called me or needed to be shown on the screen.