Rating: 4/5
Criterion Challenge 2022 | 28/52 | Made in Senegal
A boy and several men herd cows through the arid plains of Dakar to a slaughterhouse. The cows slip on the blood and gore-smeared floors as the men slit their throats and hang their bodies to drain blood.
Anta does schoolwork to the tune of babies crying. Unlike the boubou and manjak that the other women wear, Anta wears pants and a button-up shirt. Just blocks away, the high-rises of urban expansion lord over them. Aunt Oumy sells produce outside the house—when a woman comes by, promising to pay them back in the future, Anta steps up in defense. Both Oumy and the woman see it as a sign of disrespect. Anta leaves to meet up with Mory, whom Oumy sees as good-for-nothing, as he has no job and rides his bull-horn-adorned motorcycle everywhere.
Speaking of which, Mory arrives at the school to pick up Anta. Some other students, Marxists ready for the next revolution, see Mory and think he’s there to spy on them, so they tie him up and drag him to their car. The film juxtaposes one of the students pulling the horns off of Mory’s motorcycle and men in the village slaughtering a goat. They tie Mory to their car and parade him around the city. Somewhere, Anta runs, presumably to Mory. She arrives at his bike and removes her clothes. The camera looks down, not at Mory, but at the goat, kicking and belting as the men slit its throat and drain its blood into a loose door panel.
Cut to Aunt Oumy dressing the goat. Anta arrives, looking for Mory. Oumy claims Mory threw himself off the cliff. We see Anta running again, on the exact steps we saw before, on the same cliffside. Oumy’s laughter rings out and echoes, blending with electronic squeals. Images of the goat thrashing as it bleeds out are intercut with waves dashing against the rocks. She arrives at the bike, removes her clothes, and kneels to the ground, out of sight. We hear tears, but seeing Anta’s hands gripping the back of Mory’s motorcycle, the tears blend with sighs of pleasure.
Mory knows of a boat leaving tomorrow for Paris. Neither has any money to their name, but if they can steal money from somewhere and tip off the right people, they might be able to escape to their dream.
The film came out in a tumultuous time for Senegal, which achieved independence along with the Republic of Mali (then French Sudan) in 1960. In the following decades, the country would face coups and border violations from the Portuguese military. Though Wolof is the most commonly spoken native language, especially in Dakar, French is still its official language. In this way, the film explores Senegal’s post-independence disenchantment with our two leads, who do whatever they can to escape their world of tradition.
Critics saw the film as a radical departure in storytelling and filmmaking from most African films of the time. Some cite the French New Wave as an influence, while others see it more closely aligned with the shifts in space and time in African oral tradition. Regardless, the film’s experimentation with structure and juxtaposition is captivating, even with grotesque animal violence in the mix.
Touki Bouki is Wolof for The Journey of the Hyena. Bouki, the hyena, is a popular folk character in Senegalese traditions—a mischief-maker who cheats his way to success. Is Mory the hyena who steals to get what he wants—is Capitalism’s promise of happiness to those who know how to exploit its rules?
My biggest issue with the movie is the animal violence. I understand its place culturally and am not saying it shouldn’t be there — it’s just brutal and stomach-wrenching.
The gay character is quite silly, but I don’t know if the film is making fun of him because he never comes across negatively—he’s just disappointed that boys make plans with him and bail.