Touki Bouki

A beneficiary of the World Cinema Foundation (see also Dry Summer), this 35-year-old feature from Senegal once enjoyed a repertory life in European arthouses before falling out of fashion. One of only two full-length films made by Djibril Diop Mambéty, its hip, contemporary look, surreal imagery, loaded symbolism and psychedelic colours suggested the arrival of a deceptively new, modern style in African film-making. In fact, the storytelling is deeply rooted in oral tradition, with its fragmented, layered narrative and symbolic characters and interventions.

Mory and Anta are rebellious young lovers who dream of escaping from Senegal and making their way to Paris and prosperity (Djibril himself did just that, only to experience disillusion, whilst his film's prophetic theme remains today's perilous reality for hundreds of young Africans). Their odyssey zigzags through flashbacks, flashes forward, dreamlike encounters and (be warned) some barely watchable abattoir scenes symbolising the death of Mory's pastoral life. The overall effect of the film, once you give in to its barely intelligible structure, is strangely exhilarating and it is clearly the work of an intelligent and imaginative artist. Miraculously, the film's vibrant colours appear unfaded in this digital restoration by Bologna's L'Immagine Ritrovata laboratory.
Clyde Jeavons