Djibril Diop Mambéty's Touki Bouki is a stunning and complex film about two Senegal youth, a boy and a girl, who attempt to liberate themselves from a country and environment they perceive to be lesser and backwards. Wanting to escape to Paris, France, the two youngsters attempt to gather the funds necessary, traveling all over the country on their motorcycle, performing criminal type acts. A film with stylistic flourishes and a fractured narrative, Touki Bouki is almost best described as an experimental film. The narrative is very hard to follow and never streamlined in the way it is edited, blending naturalism and surrealism to create a fantasy drama that is hard to deny. Through striking imagery and impressive filmmaking, Touki Bouki examines the devastating effect colonialism can have, focusing on monetary obsession, consuming these two young individuals. Around maybe late teens, early 20s, watching these two young character idolize money and success captures the effect France has on the culture of Senegal, using these two individuals to express it. The juxtaposition and use of symbolism in Touki Bouki really stands out, with Djbril Diop Mambety creating the most experimental film I've ever seen from African cinema. Djbril Diop Mambety delivers a unique film that uses youthful idealism and rebellion to explore more complex issues and challenging the environment he himself is from. Less adventurous film watchers will probably be turned off by Touki Bouki's hard to follow narrative, but for viewers willing to give it a chance, Touki Bouki is an enchanting exploration of a host of political, social, and humanistic ideas.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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