Touki bouki / The Hyena's Journey / Journey of the Hyena (2008 restoration by World Cinema Foundation at Cineteca di Bologna)

Touki bouki. Mareme Niang as Anta and Magaye Niang as Mory.

Director: Djibril Diop Mambéty
Country: Senegal
Year: 1973
Duration: 1.25
Languages: Wolof, Arabic, French / English subtitles on print.
    Soundtrack: "the multilayered soundtrack, a skillful amalgam of ambient sounds, Western pop tunes, African drums, and avant-garde jazz" (Richard Porton).
– Aminata Fall ("Garmi").
– "Paris... Paris" Schottisch espagnole (comp. Augustin Lara, lyr. Georges Tabet), perf. Josephine Baker, 1949.
– "Plaisir d'amour" (comp. Jean-Paul-Égide Martini, lyr. Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian, 1784), perf. Mado Robin.
    Loc: Dakar (Senegal).
    "Touki bouki" means "journey of the hyena" in Wolof.
    Restored in 2008 by World Cinema Foundation at Cineteca di Bologna / L’Immagine Ritrovata in association with the family of Djibril Diop Mambéty. Restoration funding provided by Armani, Cartier, Qatar Airways and Qatar Museum Authority.
    Print: Cineteca Bologna / The Film Foundation.
    Category: 35 mm, Master Class, Master Class: Kent Jones
    Introduced by Kent Jones, hosted by Timo Malmi.
    Viewed at Midnight Sun Film Festival (MSFF), Kitisen Kino, Sodankylä, 14 June 2019.

Otto Kylmälä (MSFF): "Cowboy Mory, who spends his time cruising around on his skull moped, and university student Anta are disappointed in their life in Dakar. Together they dream of a way out and going to Europe. Mory schemes different options that would enable them to leave but is uncertain if any them will succeed."

"Senegalese Djibril Diop Mambéty’s Touki Bouki is the corner stone of African cinema. Martin Scorsese has said that “Touki Bouki explodes one frame at a time”. A premiere at Cannes and the FIPRESCI award at the Moscow film festival were great stepping stones for this experimental film. Delirious and dreamlike narration is a strong proof of the African story telling traditions reflecting on the film’s structure. The film borrows from France’s new wave but dips its citations in a fresh spring before use. The story emanates the confusion and bafflement that follows independence and avoids the stiffness of western imagery."

"The dream of the west lives strong in the characters and in the soundtrack. Josephine Baker’s song Paris, Paris gives wings to the duo’s dreams and spreads a Disney-like distortion on reality. Baker sings: “Paris, Paris, Paris / C’est sur la terre un coin de paradis / Paris, Paris, Paris / This paradise on Earth.”" (Otto Kylmälä / MSFF)

AA: I saw Djibril Diop Mambéty's poetic Touki bouki for the first time, although we have been screening it at the Finnish Film Archive in the African film series curated by Satu Laaksonen.

The poetry is based on an imagist sensibility. Repeated images include cows, the sun, the ocean, and crows. The images are powerful. They reappear like rhymes. The film has a strong pulse, a sense of rhythm.

The sensibility is musical, and the soundtrack itself is engaging with flutes and drums and an original mix of musical sources from Rococo to modern jazz. There is an affinity with Pasolini in this unconventional approach to music.

Touki bouki is also a colouristic film, radiating the light of Africa. The warm glow and heat of the sun makes everything shine.

It all adds up to a vision of the flow of life. The camera is often mobile in moving vehicles and in charming panoramic shots. The camera angles are fresh and original, like seeing the world through the camera for the first time.

Mambéty celebrates the life force, the glorious femininity, and the natural sexual radiation of Anta. The rhythm of the shots and the waves of the ocean convey the joy of the love act as Anta's hand grips the handle of the motorcycle and we hear moans of ecstasy. Mambéty revels in the view of the swinging hips of women carrying water jugs on their heads. I would argue that this is not a case of the male gaze only. The women are obviously enjoying themselves, too. I am reminded of John Berger: "women dream of men dreaming of them". Or of other women dreaming of them.

Mambéty bases his film on contrasts such as: – Paris / Dakar – tradition / modernity – the animate / the inanimate.

Touki bouki is not story-driven, but there is a nominal plot with affinities with À bout de souffle, Pierrot le fou, and Easy Rider, among others. The college student Anta will escape to Paris together with the cowboy rebel Mory. They have no money, so they turn to robbers. Civil servants are seen as corrupt or slothful. The young revolutionaries, Anta's fellow students, are hardly offering any promising alternative, either.

A lack of perspective in young African protagonists is a much more topical theme today than it was in 1973.

The finale has an affinity with Pépé le Moko in which Jean Gabin is condemned to remain in Casbah while Mireille Balin sails to France.

Touki bouki is a poetic film, but it is firmly rooted in photographic reality. Mambéty has a talent of observation and incorporating documentary inserts such as a wrestling match, a military parade, and bloody scenes of slaughter.

The restoration has been conducted in good taste. The warmth of the light and the colour is conveyed powerfully in this World Cinema Foundation / Cineteca di Bologna edition.


TOUKI BOUKI
Ohjaaja: Djibril Diop Mambéty
Maa: Senegal
Vuosi: 1973
Kesto: 1.25
Kielet: wolof, arabia, ranska / tekstitys englanniksi
Alkup. nimi: Touki Bouki
Kategoria: 35 mm, Mestariluokat, Mestariluokka: Kent Jones

Pääkallomopedillaan kruisaileva karjapaimen Mory ja yliopisto-opiskelija Anta ovat pettyneitä Dakarin elämänmenoon. Yhdessä he haaveilevat ulospääsystä ja lähdöstä Eurooppaan. Mory juonii erilaisia vaihtoehtoja, joilla he voisivat mahdollistaa lähtönsä, mutta on täysin epävarmaa onnistuuko niistä mikään.

Senegalilaisen Djibril Diop Mambétyn Touki Bouki on afrikkalaisen elokuvan merkkipaalu. Martin Scorsese on sanonut että ”Touki Bouki räjähtää yksi kuva kerrallaan”. Ensi-ilta Cannesissa ja FIPRESCI-palkinto Moskovan elokuvajuhlilta antoivat tälle hengeltään kokeelliselle elokuvalle mahtavan ponnahduslaudan. Houreinen ja unenomainen kerronta on väkevä todistus afrikkalaisen tarinaperinteen heijastuksista elokuvan rakenteeseen. Elokuva lainailee Ranskan uudelta aallolta, mutta kastaa sitaattinsa ennen käyttöä raikkaassa lähteessä. Tarina huokuu itsenäisyyden jälkeistä sekaannusta ja hämmennystä ja välttelee länsimaisen kuvaston kankeutta.

Unelma länsimaista elää kuitenkin vahvana henkilöhahmoissa ja musiikkiraidalla. Josephine Bakerin Paris, Paris -kappale siivittää kaksikon unelmointia ja levittää todellisuuden päälle disneymäisen vääristymän. Baker laulaa: ”Paris, Paris, Paris / C’est sur la terre un coin de paradis / Pariisi, Pariisi, Pariisi. Tämä maanpäällinen paratiisi.” (OK)

Restored in 2008 by World Cinema Foundation at Cineteca di Bologna/L’Immagine Ritrovata in association with the family of Djibril Diop Mambéty. Restoration funding provided by Armani, Cartier, Qatar Airways and Qatar Museum Authority.