A tonally shapeshifting piece of cinema that blends satirical elements with deep-cutting indictments of consumerism and neo-colonialism, Djibril Diop Mambety's Hyenas questions this form of societal progress, detailing how the politics of debt and austerity imposed on the Senegalese people at a local level restricts personal freedom and imposes control over the populace through such measures. The narrative itself is a brash but clever allegory, one which a local grocery finds himself slowly ostracized and oppressed due to the return of an ex-lover, a former resident of the once-prosperous Senegalese village who promises to bestow great wealth and prosperity to the financially struggling village, but only if they punish this local shopkeeper, and her ex-lover, for his past crimes against her. A lovers quarrel is effectively politicized in the course of this narrative, with Djibril Diop Mambety's film revealing how power and control can be wielded through extreme wealth. While the villagers don't agree to punish the shopkeeper directly, adamant that "justice is not for sale", it's how this wealthy woman achieves her control and "justice" indirectly, using austerity-type measures through the creation of consumerism, slowly and meticulously providing the town with various consumer products, sculpting and shaping the culture in a way in which they will eventually have to comply with her dreams of vengeance; with the people being seduced by this new way of life. The transformation of this Senegal village from poor but empathetic to one in which one which consumer goods and material wealth is championed above nearly all else is disturbing and diabolical in the context of this story, as the story itself and the transformation is viewed through the eyes of the shopkeeper, a man who slowly begins to realize his life itself may be in danger, due to the populace being seduced by the vapid promises of consumerism and material possession. While Djibril Diop Mambety's Hyenas may wrongfully be a proponent of cultural and economic protectionism, there is no denying the film's clever formalism used to bestow its rightful concerns and critiques related consumerism and economic colonialism, as the filmmaker delivers another sharp, important work that should be seen by anyone who speaks of prosperity for all.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
|