Touki Bouki (1973)
Genre: Drama / Road movie
Duration: 85 minuten
Alternative title: Journey of the Hyena
Country:
Senegal
Directed by: Djibril Diop Mambéty
Stars: Magaye Niang and Aminata Fall
IMDb score:
7,0 (4.808)
Releasedate: 1 July 1973
Touki Bouki plot
"The Journey of the Hyena"
Two Senegalese youths try to escape the poverty and underdevelopment of their homeland. The young shepherd Mory (Magaye Niang) and the girl Anta (Marerme Niang) try to organize the resources and contacts that will enable them to emigrate to France. They believe they can find better incomes and a better life there. From the province they travel by motorbike to the port city of Dakar. Mory engages in extortion and theft to realize his ambitions, but is ultimately unable to leave because he believes he cannot travel without his lost amulet. The girl is better able to realize her dream.
Reviews & comments
Spetie
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- 38871 messages
- 8253 votes
An atmospheric Senegalese road movie that ripples by at a pleasantly leisurely pace.
A few people are fed up with poverty and decide to move to Paris, hoping to find a better life there. That journey has quite a surreal touch. Flashbacks and dreams are also shown, but that does contribute to the strong atmosphere of Touki Bouki. Although they want to escape the poverty of their country, they are proud of their origins. The beautiful self-built engine with the bull's head on the front symbolizes that fact. In any case, that motorcycle plays a very important role in the story and is also almost their only valuable asset.
There is a nice pleasant sounding soundtrack throughout the film. A soundtrack that is about Paris and is often repeated. The director also asks several times whether the future in Paris will really be better, something the protagonists also wonder several times.
Despite the lack of really top scenes, Touki Bouki is a nice watch, which does very little wrong, and in my opinion it is clearly one of the better African films I have seen so far.
3.5*
Translated from Dutch · View original
wendyvortex
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- 5196 messages
- 7279 votes
I am not very familiar with African cinema, as far as it exists outside Egypt, South Africa and Nollywood (Nigeria). But this film from Senegal seemed like it could still be something. Not such high expectations in advance, the film is not perfect either, but still quite interesting/intriguing/different. The Senegalese "Au Bout de Souffle" has something in it. At least not the dreaded social realism, a little bit of magical realism. Godard 10 years later in Dakar. Still pleasantly surprised here.
Translated from Dutch · View original
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