Touki Bouki (Journey of the Hyena)

Senegal/1973—directed by Djibril Diop Mambéty | 89 minutes

With a stunning mix of the surreal and the naturalistic, Djibril Diop Mambéty paints a vivid, fractured portrait of Senegal in the early 1970s. In this New Wave–influenced fantasy drama, two young lovers long to leave Dakar for the glamour and comforts of France, but their escape plan is beset by complications both concrete and mystical.

Characterized by dazzling imagery and music, the alternately manic and meditative Touki Bouki is widely considered one of the key works of Senegalese cinema and was named in the recent Sight & Sound poll as one of the 100 greatest films of all time. In Wolof, Arabic and French with English subtitles. 

“In Touki Bouki, rejection of one’s homeland is inextricably bound to a glamorization of the colonizer’s homeland.” – Derek Smith, Slant 

The Detroit Film Theatre presents this series of films by African directors, working in Africa and Europe during the 1960s and 1970s, in conjunction with the DIA special exhibition James Barnor: Accra/London.