Touki Bouki (1973) User Reviews

Heartbreaking richly coloured phantasm

[oOgiandujaOo_and_Eddy_Merckx · 8/10 · 14 November 2008]

I went to the London Film Festival in October 2008 to watch a film from the past, a "Treasure from the Archive". However whilst Touki Bouki was made over 35 years ago it still remains incredibly relevant. Young Africans still drown trying to cross the Straits of Gibraltar to Europe every day. That's what this film is about, the desperation of ordinary Africans (specifically from a Senegalese perspective) yearning to find prosperity and stability. It's one of those films I would class as a "scream of despair". Even if there are some very funny scenes, these scenes are like the scenes of humour that Ford would inject into his Westerns to mollify audience gloom. It would not surprise me if that were a direct influence, but if he wasn't cine-literate, then Djibril must rank as the most precocious director of all time.

The bare bones of the plot of the film concerns Mory, who is a sometime cattle herder, and Anta his girlfriend who is a university student. This especially winsome couple want desperately to escape to Europe. Mory is the object of ridicule in his community, intelligent, but useless and uppity, whilst Anta's university is no real safe-haven of learning, what with it being full of decadent revolutionaries (not an oxymoron). Both yearn to live in France.

As close to a true narrative as we get is that they go to a wrestling match and attempt to steal the stadium's cash box. There are two boxes, a yellow one and a blue one, they can't take both and aren't sure which one holds the loot. They take the blue one and when they get to their deserted, ruined, ex-colonial bunker hideout realise that it is filled with Voodoo craziness, runes and skulls and such. This for me is high Surrealism.

Plan B is to steal clothes, money, and a car off a rich idler who lives in a seaside villa surrounded by catamites. Plan B is successful, exeunt Mory and Anta pursued by the lo (sic).

Dressed as highfalutin dandies they revisit Mory's community driving in a stars-and-stripes festooned car where they are treated as a Lord and his Lady. Whether this is actual plotting or wish-fulfilment dreaming is left up to the viewer to decide.

After Fellinian parades of the mind the story returns to earth with a bump as Mory and Anta reach a port and try to escape to France.

One thing that stands out in the film is the anti-French criticism. The French bourgeois who make their living in Senegal are shown as treating Senegalese as some sort of bonobo-child chimeras. Also there is the aforementioned wrestling match, which is a "charity" event organised to raise money to build a statue of General de Gaulle (the height of absurdism?). This is also internally-driven criticism as the organisers are chiefs of a Senegalese tribe.

The film is ambivalent about life in Senegal, whilst Mory and Anta yearn to leave, Mambéty also shows us beautiful scenes of daily life in Senegal, and the humour of the populace. One part for me stands out, a parade of Senegalese carrying water on their heads in semi-transparent plastic buckets, the sunlight shining through the buckets transforms them into preternatural magic lanterns, the framing is exquisite, the camerashot is filled with green and blue corruscation. The point is that this guy Mambéty is not some sort of amateur who is esteemed out of political correctness, this guy is a force of nature, a director whose capability of expression is really begging to be called primus inter pares when compared to the likes of Parajanov and Bunuel.

One strong warning is that this movie contains scenes of cattle being slaughtered both in abbatoirs and outside of them, right at the start of the film. Really gruesome in the extreme, and far more graphic for example than the familiar scene of an ox being slaughtered in Apocalypse Now. The point of it is metaphorical, young African men are treated as no less than cattle to be slaughtered, fodder for the consumer games of power structures, ultimately commoditised.

Unique landmark African film

[Red-Barracuda · 6/10 · 6 February 2017]

Two young people attempt to escape the poverty of their native Senegal and move to Paris. They raise some funds by committing petty crimes.

Touki Bouki is a very distinctive film that's for sure. The African continent hasn't been renowned for producing a great deal of important movies but this one certainly qualifies as such. It has a pretty basic story-line but it's not a plot-driven affair at all really. In actual fact it is quite experimental in approach much of the time and seems to have been influenced by the European New Wave films quite a bit. But what gives it its edge is that within that it is very specifically Senegalese. It's not often we see much from this part of the world represented in cinema, especially not from over forty years ago and certainly rarely from actual Senegalese film-makers. It's this Senegalese colour and authenticity, combined with the bold experimental cinematic presentation that makes this one very much stand out. In truth, I don't think I fully appreciated all its nuances on first viewing and would certainly like to return to it sometime in the future. Be warned though, it does contain some pretty brutal scenes of animal slaughter which make for difficult viewing. All-in-all though, this unusual film has a great deal of character and its strong sense of location makes for fascinating viewing.

Brilliant illustration of an average story

[Mort-31 · 7/10 · 3 April 2003]

First, I didn't like the movie because I felt I wasn't able to enjoy it really. It made the impression of a TV documentary on how livestock is mistreated in Western Africa.

Then, by quite confusingly repeating a scene scored by somewhat mystical pop music, the film turned to the other extreme and made me consider it over-sybolistic.

Then, finally, the actual story began, and I could figure out various things. I could separate dream from reality, although this was not so easy, and I thought the film was too clichéd at some moments (e. g. the fat gay man, who was charming but a little camp).

Now that the film is over and I thought back to it I believe it is not at all a bad movie. Many discontinuities and an unusual narrative style are something we should welcome. Regarding the images and colours it is a wonderful piece of work. The film seems like brilliant illustration of an average story.

a wonderfully wild ride

[mcfloodhorse · 9/10 · 21 March 2008]

Disorienting and at times even a bit schizophrenic, this is an extraordinarily vibrant, pulsating, and eccentric film. Comparisons to the anarchic, jumpy, free-associative style of the French New Wavers are not far off, but there's something much more erotic and carnal in the film's playfulness.

The story of self-assured college beauty Anta and her fella - Mory the motorcycle-riding herdsman - starts in Dakar and wistfully wanders toward Paris, the seemingly unattainable city of their dreams. Their get-rich-quick schemes and the breezy, colorful manner in which they unfold are funny and inspired.

Along the way, there are sequences of both utter hilarity and genuine depth, although the film does sometimes seem unsure of its many potentially-symbolic representations. But the stylistic narrative and experimental technical aspects are so full of ideas that talk of the film's minor weaknesses seems trivial.

The soundtrack is outstanding, full of syncopation and polyrhythms pacing the film and giving a rich texture to the images. And there's constant movement, until the film's denouement where character, story, camera and concept fuse together in common paralysis, where all seems frozen in reflection.

forces of modernity collide head on with the weight of African tradition

[trpuk1968 · 11 August 2011]

I recently showed this film to a group of students so what follows is a condensed version of the worksheet I gave them. The questions I give hopefully can assist others in making meaning from the film.

Touki Bouki can best be made sense of in the following way: It operates through allusion and symbolism. Through the story of two young lovers, Mory and Fanta, clashing with the older generation, yearning to leave for Paris, Mambety puts on screen his vision of a country where the weight of thousands of years of tradition collides head on with the modernity of a newly emergent Senegal.

Allusion...an implied or indirect reference hinting at something

Symbol...something that stands for something else...something concrete that represents or suggests another thing that cannot in itself be represented or visualised...for example a lion symbolises courage

Think about what you have seen (and heard!) in the film, paying special attention to:

Mory's motorbike – what is it decorated with? What do those objects remind you of? Fanta ties it to a tree, in the midst of a herd of cows...is there a connection to the cows?

The long scene in the first half of the film, when there are lots of shots of the sea, then we see Mory and Fanta together on the cliffs talking about leaving for France

The transformation of the Aunt from an unsympathetic character in the first half of the film to a praise singer in the second.

Charlie's car which Mory and Fanta ride off in after robbing him is a Citroen painted in the flag of which country? How is it positioned in relation to the motorbike and the welcomers?

1. How do you think the following things are alluded to in the film?

The act of lovemaking The city of Paris The cycles of life – birth, death, birth

2. How do you think the following things are symbolised in the film?

African tradition African modernity – this film is made soon after Senegal gained independence The ties which hold us, such as family, friends, our familiar environment Colonial power The primitive

Other points to consider...

Mambety inserts documentary footage from actual events, such as the women at the well, a wrestling competition, street children and a Presidential motorcade, into a fiction film. Do these scenes have anything to do with the story? What effect do they have on you, the viewer? What's your response to them? Why might they be in the film?

Certain images and sounds are repeated in the film, such as the ocean, the crows, the cries of the taxi driver who runs away from the box then repeated by the caveman. What effect does this have? Does it 'organize' the film in any way?

Answers... Mory's motorbike symbolizes Africa, in the scene after they ve robbed Charlie, it s positioned in such a way against the Citroen that the two seem oppositional. The Citroen is a French car decorated with the US flag stars and stripes so representing both French colonialism and US imperialism. The sea is a symbol for lovemaking. The cycles of nature are implied in the scenes of cattle slaughter and goat being sacrificed. Fanta ties the motorbike up as if shes trying to hold at bay the forces of modernity, of change. is the film trying to reconcile two opposing aspects, yearning for the past and tradition while simultaneously embracing modernity, the new? Whose the weird, white looking caveman up in the tree? Its as if Mambety shoves our images of 'primitive' Africans back in faces, also in the dream sequence when Mory and Fanta sit in the car, dressed in 1930s clothes smoking, being sung praises by Aminata Fal is a parody of successful Europeans. There's so much I d love to write about this film...Paris is reduced to a notion, an idea, a fantasy, brought to life through a clichéd song by Josephine Baker. On another level I read Touki Bouki as being about how Europe positions Africa and Africa positions Europe as exotic other. I m running out of space here, loads I could write about this film, hope this is useful, ENJOY!

An Amazing Blend of Cultures

[gavin6942 · 7/10 · 2 September 2016]

Mory, a cowherd, and Anta, a university student, try to make money in order to go to Paris and leave their boring past behind.

This film looks great and is just very interesting from the whole clash of cultures perspective. You have some African tradition here, and mixed in with that you have some Muslim practices. I am no expert, but I suspect Islam in Senegal is much different than in the Middle East. It's an interesting blend. And then, of course, you have the modern world of France, which is different from either of those cultures.

What may strike viewers the most, especially because it happens so early in the film (and is repeated later), is the slaughter of the cattle. Whether the methods shown are humane or not, I have no idea. But they look brutal, and to the modern world it may be a shock to see something that has become so far removed from our everyday life. Now, food is food, and we rarely see that once upon a time it was a living thing.

a young person's movie, scattered but affecting, funny and a strong ending

[Quinoa1984 · 8/10 · 14 May 2017]

One of the major aspects of the filmmaking I noticed with Touki Bouki was the music; Mambety uses the same "Paris, Paris, Paris" song several times, and early on I thought it was a wonderful sort of jingle - maybe like "Buongiorno" in Before the Revolution, something bouncy that gives the young characters their own theme - but I think the longer it went on I realized that the director had it almost as something else in mind. It's song use as way of like a chant one has in a head or almost like a prayer; the 'Paris' is a fantasy of Paris from the song, as in what one might hear from the French New Wave style of films (which I'm sure in some way or another, if only in the documentary realism those films sometimes had as a bedrock from the more stylish things that came from it), as their own reflections of the culture.

There comes a point though where the use of the song, especially in the last section, becomes like a desperate plea, like, 'Oh, please, Paris-Paris-Paris, let this be so." There is other music in the film too - the last piece used especially is effective and adds to the melancholy feeling that Mambety aims to get, and he certainly achieves it - but this is like the unofficial anthem of the film, or at least for these two characters Mory and Anta, who meet as two young people from a small sea-side town in Senegal with practically no prospects and decide to leave for Paris, France, for better fortunes. They have little schemes to steal in order to get enough money to escape, such as a card game that doesn't go as planned (Mory barely escapes alive after not paying a guy ten grand in Senegalese money), they steal a suitcase that may not have what they're looking for (to put it mildly; another guy who opens it up and finds its contents runs away, hilariously, screaming); and, finally, a scheme to steal some things/clothes from some big shot in a seaside villa.

There's a pulse to the film that is full of the unexpected, and Mambety here is after something that can put you on your toes as a viewer. Scorsese on the Criterion DVD says of the film, "the film is exploding from shot to shot". Not all of the shots exactly are that way, but I can get behind the comparison; the movie opens in such a way that is meant to grab you completely, as we see a cow being slaughtered, like up-close and with the blood leaving no other sign that it's anything else (later there's another animal shown slaughtered). I wasn't sure if this was meant as some poetic or symbolic gesture - are we to compare these characters, or any of the other people, to the cows being killed for meat and their skins - or if it was simply there so that we can get in the mind-frame of, 'This place is serious business, and it's REAL'.

And, naturally, I was taken in by the first twenty minutes because there isn't a plot that gets established right away; we're here to see the atmosphere of the place, and it sets up the tone well in one way: this is going to be episodic, hanging by a thread, and the thread itself has a lot of in-your-face, surreal touches. Take the one woman who tends to cackle loudly at someone as if they are, uh, fallen off of the cliff, and then later on in the film when the characters return(ish) to that part of the village in fancy clothes in the back of a car being driven by the guy who thinks they are supposed to be driven via the guy they ripped off, the woman does a dance and sings about "the Prince" who has come, and others in the village dance with them.

This is an unusual rhythm with the things that just *happen* here - at another point early on, Mambety shows two women who get into a scrap over buckets of water, and when a guy intervenes to stop them, it causes more chaos, though it's all fun for the kids watching and laughing - but it is consistent, and I applaud Mambety for aiming for a visual, emotional cinema above all else. This becomes most clear near the end, when, and here's when we get into spoilers (just know I recommend the film for those who can accept and even look for outside-the-box films from places you don't expect like Senegal), Mory decides right at the entrance to the ship that'll take then to France he has to leave. Why does he go back into the city? All for his motorcycle? Did he intend to go back to the ship and, when he discovers what's happened (hint: it involves a.... white Caveman guy, yeah, that's midway through the movie he first appears, and it's easily the strangest part of all of this)? Whatever the case, as the director and cameraman follow Mory running so fast away from the ship to the city, it gives an exhilarating feeling while at the same time leads to a sadder, more contemplative kind of state of being, at least for me, that I didn't expect Touki Bouki to give to us, which was good.

This wasn't going to quite end up how these characters though it would, but at the same time it's not done in something bloody or murderous exactly for them. It's more about... well, this was the dream, the dream of "Paris, Paris, Paris".

Powerful images

[valadas · 7/10 · 11 May 2020]

The first important thing to say is that I hope that no animals are ill treated or killed in the course of filming which is unacceptable and strictly forbidden. The images are powerful indeed in terms of scenes, surroundings and people's faces, bodies, expressions and behaviours. The action takes place in Senegal and the story is simple and well shown. A cow herd and a university student are longing to leave Senegal and emigrate to Paris. They try to succed in that by doing a lot of things including stealing money from other people to pay for a ship travel to France. Through it we see and are aware of the life and usages of the Sebegalese lower social class. All well filmed, directed and acted. And last but not least we listen on the background part of a Parisian song by the beautiful voice of Josephine Baker.

the mystery and misery of fate

[framptonhollis · 8/10 · 28 December 2017]

The thick border separating realism from surrealism is thinned down evermore in each scene of this gem of a drama. Anarchic, exhilerating, and playful, Touki Bouki takes its viewers on a unique and memorable journey despite the occasional boring or overlong sequence having the power to, every now and then, bring the movie's high quality down a few notches. However, boredom is really subjective, and I still remained at least somewhat engaged in the film's characters, ideas, story, cinematography, and overall artistry even when the scene I was watching felt dragged out.

The film is unlike most others, both style and story wise. Not too much really happens in the film, and the conclusion is somber, off putting, and strange in a way that recalls almost nothing else's I have ever seen. It mixes many different feelings and genres and textures and so on and so forth, the main characters are both lovers, but they never have a romantic scene together, they just sort of hang out and interact in a very real and enjoyable way. The film can be interpreted as a dark tragedy, but comedy lurks in almost every corner, and even reaches its high point during what may be the most intense scene in the film! There are moments involving interesting cultural traditions that allow non-Africans like myself to get a unique glimpse into this foreign society, joyous scenes of song and dance, anarchic avant gardism, ingredients of a prettily poetic pop, humor that hangs both high and low brow, surrealistic twists, mindbending editing decisions, many sequences directly inspired by French New Wave Cinema (Jean-Luc Godard in particular), and plenty more! And the film is barely even ninety minutes long, the plot is ridiculously simple, and the scale is mostly minuscule.

Social status of the disadvantage

[jordondave-28085 · 7/10 · 27 April 2023]

(1973) Touki Bouki/ Journey of the Hyena (In Wolof, Arabic and French with English subtitles) DOCU- DRAMA

Written and directed by Djibril Diop Mambéty with a beginning not for the faint of heart, showcasing an actual slaughterhouse for cows. Then it introduces a young African couple of Mory (Magaye Niangand) and Anta (Myriam Niang) wanting to start a new life in France. They do this by riding around on a motorcycle from place to place looking for opportunities to steal something big. The thin plot device can sometimes look like it serves as a backdrop to the current African culture, as well as it's environment.

Not for everybody

[chewbaccuh · 5/10 · 23 February 2006]

First of all, I want to make it clear that I am a foreign film lover. If you aren't, don't bother with this film because you will hate it.

This film is interesting because it shows the life of the poor and underclass in Africa, and gives a brief glimpse into the rich when the lead character of the movie visits a gay man.

There are subtle references...some insulting...on the various types of people who come and go in the film. The lazy government employee (the postman), the corrupt government employee (the policemen are show twice in the film of either taking bribes or were implicated in it), the corrupt government leaders (the title character even imagines himself one, riding in a parade in front of the poor), the rich whites (who make racist remarks on the boat about the Africans while showing a pet dog better off than most people in the country), and student rebels (who tie up the character on a truck and are no better than the corrupt government officials), a gambler, and wrestlers.

But the narrative is confusing, as if those who made it were in first year of film school and just got their camera. What does it mean about the cattle being slaughtered? Are Africans being led to the slaughter? In the end why does the lead character run away from the boat that was to take him to Paris, where he dreams throughout the film of going? What is the near white primitive caveman doing riding his motorbike? What happened to the skeleton in the trunk they had stolen (they thought they were stealing money) Did it mean something else?? Who knows? There is no explaining of it by the director.

The film does offer the beautiful colors and landscapes of Africa and you can almost smell the sweat and odors of the places visited.

an inside view

[lee_eisenberg · 9/10 · 22 December 2023]

One of the most famous movies to come from Senegal, Djibril Diop Mambéty's "Touki Bouki" focuses on a man and woman with aims of moving to Paris and willing to do pretty much anything to make the voyage. Much of the movie shows the different facets of people's lives in Senegal, with lingering elements of colonialism (notably the ads for Pepsi and IBM on buildings).

I first learned of Mambéty from his 1992 movie "Hyenas", an adaptation of Friedrich Dürrenmatt's play "The Visit", which was an allegory for the rise of Nazism in Germany. "Hyenas" was apparently intended as a sequel of sorts to "Touki Bouki"; to be certain, they were Mambéty's only feature films (he died in 1998). Whatever the case, both movies give us perceptive looks at Senegal; it's not often that we get to see that country.

All in all, it's one of the most interesting movies that I've ever seen. Definitely more worth seeing than any movie whose plot is two hours of explosions and car chases.

The Horns of Liberty

[ThurstonHunger · 7/10 · 12 September 2023]

Finally tracked this 1973 film down after watching and enjoying "Hyenas" by the same director earlier this year. Purportedly, "Hyenas" was the sequel to this, but that might be more in an emotional sense, as this film is vibrant with youthful desire, especially desire to flee the motherland of Senegal, while in "Hyenas" a bewitching/besmirched woman returns to Senegal after decades of being abroad.

Youth is what drives "Touki Bouki" - a mismatched couple of Mory and Anta, full of big dreams lacking even the smallest details. Their crime spree is more innocent than Bonnie and Clyde, or Oliver Stone's "Natural Born Killers." But there is that sort of recklessness that propels them from scene to scene.

And there is youth behind the camera as well, although his brother talks about the director's scripting ability in the bonus scenes, much of the film has a raw improvised flair to it. Capture an animal being slaughtered, work in some three-card monte, dig up some gris-gris by the shore, include lots of street and road life, Tarzan in a tree and a wicked knife bearing crazy lady and a skull in a treasure chest.

Most of the crimes and dreams fall short, but finally a trip to an ocean-side pool leads to a clothes-make-the-man-and-woman fantasy flight for paradise. Or at least Paris, Paris, Paris (noticed the cast notes highlights Josephine Baker for her singing in this, she an emblem for fleeing an unappreciative if not hostile homeland ).

Are there elements here of class divide, of colonialism and racism, sure. Toss in some interesting angles on sex, Anta has a defiant androgeny that I bet captivated the director. She might make a modern-day heroine/hero for many. It's that youthful frustration with problems a budding adult senses have been around too long, but somehow s/he feels they can, they must overcome.

Yet even as you dream of the refined ocean liner outbound, you see the rotting husk of a ship offshore.

The plot is a tad thinner here than in "Hyenas" but what was interesting was the choice Mory makes at the end, granted a bit obfuscated by that strange Tarzan-esque interference.

Ultimately the film captured the intoxicating chaos of youth, while delivering a more subtle sobering statement about how one's own liberty is enmeshed in one's surroundings, even when those surroundings feel as though they conspire against one.

A dilemma, with horns.

Colorful nonsense

[xWRL · 3/10 · 28 May 2014]

There's a lot going on in this movie--including even a plot. But it's hard to make any sense of it.

You have to give the filmmaker and actors the benefit of the doubt. It's so excellently shot technically and everyone seems to be having such fun, it very likely is the exact movie that the cast and crew intended to make. But the overall impression is of a self-indulgent farce in which we the viewers are not in on the joke.

Even taken as a superficial jumble of beautiful, technically perfect images--and that's pretty much what I was able to take away from this movie--the film is a letdown because it could have been so much more fresh, satirical, and fun than it is.

Images of African air

[chaos-rampant · 22 January 2015]

An African film here about youth, about the thirst to escape from a place that parches it and the bike ride through dirt roads out to sea where a ship sails for Europe. But I want to avoid merely a museum visit or an aesthetic token from a faraway place, I want the heart that pounds behind appearances and gives rise to their breeze of color. What heart here?

First are the things he says about the home that is left behind. Symbolic cows being led to slaughter and cut to the young lead riding his motorbike with cow horns on the wheel. A stolen chest, supposedly full of money to pay for a DeGaulle statue but it contains a corpse.

These are the things the filmmaker knows exactly what he wants to say about. They're also the least interesting to watch for me. The young lead being wrestled by leftist students is intercut with cows being wrestled before the slaughter. The dear bike stolen by a savage white man and left broken while he's extracted with merely a broken leg. Not without nuance, but some of it is as didactic as we make fun of Hollywood.

More tantalizing is the journey through these to outrun them, even more so once you realize this is the same journey the filmmaker himself made from that same port. A yearning for freedom, but the desired freedom is a life of material comforts in Europe, what every boy his age would dream about, cafés and girls. Meanwhile the girl meekly tugs along behind her childish man. There's a sense that she quietly yearns for more; but she also feels beautiful in the (stolen) pink suit and red hat, as any girl would. I like films where youth is embraced with its dreams and folly, this is one.

But also a deeper heart, things which the filmmaker doesn't know how to express clearly but vaguely feels stirring. There are a few of these where the surface of the film is rippled by some hidden vortix that seems to rage in the deep, like when the girl thinks he has drowned. If the journey is Godard, this is Pasolini. This might be part of what some reviews note as sloppy technique. True. This is a man still trying to fathom how images can surround a feel.

So this is it here, a journey where as these two lovers flee, they get caught up in situations that tear from them images of who they are and what their surrounding world is like, images the air takes along which become the film. In the end one self is left behind, the one who has not outrun this world.

Senegalese director Djibril Diop Mambéty makes a conscious choice of showing Senegal in a good light !!!!

[FilmCriticLalitRao · 10/10 · 8 June 2015]

It is indeed hard to believe that over the years, the magic of Europe as a golden land of opportunities has not faded. It is also unfortunate that Europe continues to charm countless innocent, impoverished men and women from Asia, Africa and Latin America to risk their lives in order to reach European soil with the sole objective of making a lot of money. Some of these daredevils can be found in the Senegalese film 'Touki Bouki' directed by maverick Djibril Diop Mambéty. He has ensured that Senegal is not shown in any kind of bad light as hunger and scenes of poverty which have become regular features of other African films about Africa have been deliberately avoided. It is a mystery how Touki Bouki's comical situations have been termed as surreal. They are as close as possible to daily lives which prove out to be a great test for everybody. Watching the comic scenes with utmost attention, one realizes how some borders are closely guarded so that Paris continues to be far for many impoverished African youngsters. Lastly, some scenes of cruelty towards animals might drive some viewers to start hating this film. This is the only major imperfection which one can detect in this film.

Touki Bouki

[M0n0_bogdan · 7/10 · 10 April 2023]

I've never searched for a movie from the African continent unless it came up naturally because of its popularity...until this one.

It does have artistic merit, sure, it has the feel of a student movie with all the artsy-fartsy experimental stuff you would expect but it's not lazy and it's not without reason. It's about a country finding it's purpose and identity, trying to rise from the squalor...the struggle of any country at one point in history...all through the experience of our protagonist.

But I do find it ironic how the story worked as a self-fulfilling prophecy but for the director. That was his hustle and took advantage of it...he got out.

Touki Bouki

[moamedaliebaid · 8/10 · 7 May 2023]

Written and directed by Djibril Diop Mambety, Touki Bouki (The Journey of the Hyena) is the story of two lovers who try to leave Dakar, Senegal for France as they embark into a journey filled with trials and tribulations. The film is a look into the world that is Africa and two lovers' desire for a better life. Starring Magaye Niang and Marame Niang. Touki Bouki is a whimsical and entrancing film from Dijbril Diop Mambety.

Set in the port city of Dakar and nearby rural areas, the film follows the life of a couple who want to escape the poverty of their home and do whatever it takes to go to Paris for a better life. It's a film that has a simple story yet it is told in a very whimsical and surreal fashion as it play into a couple trying to find a better life amidst the chaos of their homeland. The film's screenplay doesn't really have much of a plot as it mainly follows these two people who are trying to live their life but don't really live by the rule of conventional society in their rural environment. They do whatever they can to get money and leave Senegal as there is this element in the third act that does play into a sense of surrealism but also that blur of fantasy and reality. Especially as it play into what these two want and what would they do if they do reach that dream.

Djibril Diop Mambety's direction is very ravishing for the way he presents Dakar and its rural environment as if it is set in a world that is foreign but also kind of modern. Presented in this cinema verite style that definitely owes a lot to the aesthetics of the French New Wave, Mambety's direction has this sense of energy and looseness. The usage of handheld cameras as well as creating that sense of repetition as it play into what is real and what is fantasy. Mambety's compositions in its usage of close-ups as well as these gorgeous wide and medium shots of the location play into the beauty of Dakar as it is this intoxicating and vibrant world that exciting. Even in its rural area that is based on a more traditional idea of Africa as it crosses into something that is modern as it play into a clash of ideals and roots of what these two characters want. Notably in the third act as it is quite surreal into what happens when these two characters are given the things they want and that chance to leave Senegal but there is also that conflict of identity of who they are and what they're going to leave. Overall, Mambety creates a rapturous film about a couple trying to leave Senegal for Paris.

Cinematographer George Bracher does brilliant work with the film's very colorful and gorgeous cinematography as it has this vibrancy to the look of the locations with its beautiful colors as well as the way the sun shines on a shot or in a location. Editor Siro Asteni does amazing work with the editing with its usage of jump-cuts and other rhythmic cuts that play into its energy as well as its air of surrealism. Set/costume designer Aziz Diop Mambety does excellent work with the look of some of the places the characters go to including the home of a rich man as well as the clothes they would wear in the third act. The film's music consists of songs sung by Josephine Baker, Mado Robin, and Aminata Fall as it play into that air of fantasy but also reality as it has songs that are upbeat but also melancholic about what these characters go through.

The film's fantastic cast include a couple of notable small roles from the famed African singer Aminata Fall as the aunt of the young woman and Ousseynou Diop as a rich friend of theirs named Charlie. The phenomenal performances of Magaye and Mareme Niang in their respective roles as Mory and Anta as this young couple who are dealing with their need to escape poverty with the former already running a major debt with the latter feeling ostracized for not wanting to play by the rules as both of them want something to live for but later become conflicted in their journey of escape.

Touki Bouki is a phenomenal film from Djibril Diop Mambety. Featuring a great cast, amazing music, and loads of style in its visual presentation, it's a film that isn't just one of the quintessential films of African cinema but also world cinema as it showcases a world that is just ravishing to watch. In the end, Touki Bouki is a spectacular film from Djibril Diop Mambety.

Djibril Diop Mambety Films: (Contras'city) - (Badou Boy) - (Parlons Grand-mere) - (Hyenes) - (Le Franc) - (La Petite Vendeuse de Soleil)

Beautiful, but beware the scenes of animal slaughter

[gbill-74877 · 7/10 · 30 March 2024]

The story to this film is simple (maybe deceptively so), but it's told in an avant-garde way by Mambéty, and loaded with meaning. The premise is that a rebel and a university student have had enough of the traditional life in Dakar, and dream of escaping by ship to Paris. They get on his motorbike which is embellished with cow horns, and to the tune of Josephine Baker crooning "Paris, Paris," begin a series of misadventures on their way to the port.

The events that occur along the road trip, most involving theft or attempted theft, really aren't all that memorable, but the visuals that Mambéty and cinematographer Pap Samba Sow conjured up certainly were. Vibrant colors, rugged scenery, a photographer's eye for framing make for many gorgeous moments, pretty impressive for its limited budget. And yet, in stark contrast to the beauty in this land and its people, life is shown to be dirty, and a struggle. The film felt immersive into Senegal in a literal sense, but through its use of montages, fantasy, and misdirection, also immersive into the fractured mindset of its nonconformist protagonists.

Unfortunately, this immersion also includes some absolutely brutal scenes of animals being killed very early on - cattle in a slaughterhouse, as well as a goat out in a field. These go on for extended intervals, there is a lot of blood, and the animals are shown writhing in agony. Images from the slaughterhouse are reprised towards the end, giving it a larger point, that the young man is as trapped as those poor cows, which was a powerful moment, but I don't think the earlier scenes needed to have been as graphic as they were. It was nauseating to me, though admittedly my perspective is from a different culture, and one lucky enough to have the means to be vegetarian.

The film is made with artistry and style, but it's rooted in realism, and a reflection of the desire for a better life for the Senegalese. There isn't an overt argument made as to the devastating effects of colonialism that impoverished the country, but we do get a glimpse into the ugly attitudes of a French couple who have been teaching in Senegal for seven years, through this exchange:

"There's nothing to see in Senegal. Barren, intellectually as well." "Our salary is three times that of the Senegalese teachers, but they don't eat like we do. They're not as refined." "And what would we buy here? Masks? African art is a joke made up by journalists in need of copy."

Overall, despite its power and visual flair, I confess I admired this film more than I loved it. Aside from the animal slaughter (which may seriously turn you against the film on its own), the events on the road trip following that glorious scene on the flat rock with the sea churning below just weren't strong enough, and pacing was an issue. Worth seeing, just be prepared to avert your gaze in the beginning.

The Promise of París

[blakestachel · 9/10 · 12 October 2022]

What starts as a realist and objective documentation of post-imperialist Senegalese society, rapidly apprises the viewer of its wacky formalism, as it increasingly subverts its social realism. It's like a window to the world, veiled by an illusory screen.

The purpose of Touki Bouki's subversions is to construct a recalcitrant critique of the festering remains of French imperialism that stripped the nation of its inherent culture. The cynical display of violence to animals, hyper-masculinity and sexism, and of the desire for a quick and effortless social ascension, underline the film's personal condemnation of its own reality. Its indignation is directed at the fact that seemingly, nothing will ever change.

It's stylistic resemblance to the French New Wave exists as a synecdoche of this lingering influence. The farcical promise of economic liberation by escaping to France is an idyllic and impossible objective for the characters and is conveyed through long, wistful takes of the primordial sea which envelopes Senegal and bars them from the outside world. The characters are mocked by the birds and boats that traverse this incarcerating mass of water with ease and are likened to the livestock which are forcefully tethered to the earth.

Idyllic diaspora is also conveyed in the film's looping soundtrack, which croons "París, París, París" in a romanticized and hypnotic melody to teasingly whisk away these trapped souls. It's use of diegetic sounds in non-diegetic ways (e.g. The foghorn from the boat supplanted in the film's score and irrationally repeating itself) further cement the continued effort of diluting reality through form.

Its plot elements are consistently interrupted by long bouts of experimental montage to mythologize the characters and their plight. Especially effective, are the handheld point-of-view shots, oftentimes mounted to moving objects, mixed in with methodical pans and tilts which switch to an objective vantage point. This construction of style serves to depict counter-hegemonic representations of Blackness (objective) and allows the perspectives of these characters (subjective) to be taken up by the viewer.

Touki Bouki, a piece of accented cinema, was directed by Djibril Diop Mambéty, a brazen auteur responsible for only one other narrative feature (Hyenas), and exists as a semiotic matrix of connotative meanings that make for an enriching and thought provoking example of Third Cinema.

A 3rd World Easy Rider

[iquine · 3/10 · 15 September 2017]

(Flash Review)

All good films should open with an 'authentic' cow slaughter. Kidding but this film did it. It was the main character's job but I think the 2-3 animals slaughtered during the film were for real but then actually used for people to consume as they normally would. Aside from those scenes, the film is about a university student who is tired with his life and wants to move to Paris. So he tries to earn a little money or steal it or steal things to help him get to Paris all while riding a motorcycle with a cow skull on it. There's the Easy Rider connection. Ha. The film is very poorly paced with a loose and abstract story without any satisfying payoff. There was an attempt at a metaphor between the motorcycle and cows but it was lost on me.

Confusing

[CommieTT · 5/10 · 26 November 2001]

I wanted to see this movie because I read about it on a list of political films that were praised in a local free newspaper (The Washington Free Press).

The movie, filmed in the west African country of Senegal, does contrast the great divide between the haves and the have-nots; graphically so.

However, the film style seems to be along the lines of the French new wave artist Jean-Luc Godard. I've read Godard is a "genius" when it comes to film -- but I think it depends on your perspective. I've enjoyed his films "Week End" and "Masculine-Feminine" but when it came to "Pierrot le fou," I just had to shrug. That's kind of how I felt about "Touki Bouki."

If you are interested in seeing a very in-your-face story about two young lovers trying to find the money to leave Senegal for France, this is the film. Though be forewarned, it doesn't always make much sense!

My rating: 5

Ick.

[fallingtrees · 2/10 · 29 March 2013]

It may be an old film, but I had to switch off after the first 30 minutes. There seemed to be horrific scenes of animal slaughter every so often for no real reason. It was horrible.

No explanation, no real plot flow, very confusing, strange camera angles, repeated scenes, and too much pretentious symbolism. There were some parts of it that had real promise and made me giggle, but after a while I just gave up. Something was lacking. Something was lost in translation.

So again a warning - scenes of barbaric animal slaughter. We're talking PETA video style images OK, stuff you should be OK with as a meat eater, but usually people are not.

Totally empty

[bartolomeudebensafrim · 5/10 · 8 January 2021]

African visual beauty, just a bit of it's culture (it's so avantgarde sometimes it's not even senegalese), and nothing more. No script, no story to tell, nothing.

Not good

[hemisphere65-1 · 2/10 · 21 March 2021]

A loser and his girlfriend want to travel abroad, so they eventually steal some magical clothing that allows passports to appear and enough money to get from West Africa to Europe. Avant garbage, overrated, pseudo-intellectual nonsense. The main characters are low-life thieves, but these are our heroes. No guy running a con game allows anyone to place a bet without putting the cash up, anywhere on the globe! Disappointing film.