Nouakchott - Timbuktu, which won seven Cesar awards - France's version of the Oscars - on Friday tells the story of northern Mali under the control of jihadists, in a foreshadowing of the rise of the Islamic State group.
Among its haul, it scooped the coveted best film and best director gongs for Mauritania's Abderrahmane Sissako.
The ancient caravan town of the title, often a by-word for otherworldly remoteness, was seized by armed Islamists who cut a swathe through the west African nation's vast desert for most of 2012.