Touki Bouki

Touki Bouki

Director: Djibril Diop Mambéty
Country: Senegal

1973 | 90 min. | Wolof
Subtitles: German, English
FSK 12

Cast_ Magaye Niang, Mareme Niang, Aminata Fall, Ousseynou Diop Screenplay_ Djibril Diop Mambéty Camera_ Pap Samba Sow, Georges Bracher Producer_ Djibril Diop Mambéty Rights_ Teemour Diop Mambety

A young Senegalese couple’s dream of going to Paris is mysteriously thwarted. A masterpiece of postcolonial cinema and a forerunner of Afrofuturism.

Mory, a herder, is the proud owner of a motorcycle with two cattle horns mounted on its handlebars. He and Anta, a student, dream of a better life in France. To pay for their journey to that “corner of paradise,” they find themselves forced to commit several thefts. Their plans, however, are thwarted by a series of mystical incidents.

Djibril Diop Mambéty’s key work of the African avant-garde breaks with classical European naturalism. Told in a visually striking poetic idiom and filled with fantastical elements, ›Touki Bouki‹ calls postcolonial promises into question.

Director

Djibril Diop Mambéty (1945–1998) was a Senegalese filmmaker and actor. After appearing in several films as an actor, he began directing in 1969 and went on to make two highly influential features, ›Touki Bouki‹ and ›Hyenas‹ (1992), as well as several short films. His work engages with Africa’s colonial legacy and creates new space for the continent’s storytelling traditions.

Screenings