Djibril Diop Mambéty’s picaresque fantasy-drama focuses on two young lovers, Mory and Anta, desperate to escape post-colonial Dakar for the glamour of Paris. Setting off on Mory’s motorcycle, mounted with the horned skull of a zebu, they face obstacles both practical and mystical. Influenced by the French New Wave, Mambéty’s effervescent storytelling is characterised by vivid imagery, sardonic humour, discontinuous editing, and audacious soundscapes.
“Touki Bouki combines comedy, tragedy, road-movie tropes and criminal glamour into an elegy for youth and disaffection.” Arike Oke
“Anarchic, surreal, shocking, frenetic… Touki Bouki’s visual and aural juxtapositions are simultaneously meditative and troubling.” Robin Baker
“Few movies from the 1970s still feel as contemporary as the (fairy)tale of Mory and Anta: a reimagination of the griot tradition through the prism of Jean-Luc Godard and Arthur Penn.” Andreas Busche
“Every shot is a painting which attempts to recreate not the world but the experience of watching it with intense devotion.” Alonso Díaz de la Vega
