Touki Bouki (35mm)

(Djibril Diop Mambéty, Senegal 1973, 85 min., 35mm)

Mory and Anta, two lovers on the run, perform different schemes in hopes of raising money to flee to an idealized France. Often discussed in relation to the French New Wave for its scattered narrative and free-associative montage style, Touki Bouki rather presents a much more carnal and erotic aesthetic in an array of vignettes. In an inversion of the Western model of representation, Paris is reduced to a romanticized idea brought to life by a 1950s Josephine Baker musical leitmotif while modern-day Senegal is being celebrated for its frenetic and hybrid reality. Partially funded by the Senegalese government, the film ironically exposes the corruption of government officers while advocating an overall anti-colonialist message pushing beyond the traditional nationalistic discourse dominating 1970s Senegalese cinema. Mambéty’s feature debut is both a sensible and playful masterpiece, a hypnotic ode to youth and its folly, not to be missed!