This screening is sold out. We will start an in-person waitlist one hour before the screening in case we are able to release last-minute tickets.
With a stunning mix of the surreal and the naturalistic, Djibril Diop Mambéty paints a fractured portrait of the disenchantment of post-independence Senegal in the early 1970s. In this picaresque fantasy-drama, the disaffected young lovers Anta and Mory, fed up with Dakar, long to escape to the glamour and comforts they imagine France has to offer, but their plan is confounded by obstacles both practical and mystical. Alternately manic and meditative, Touki Bouki has an avant-garde sensibility characterized by vivid imagery, bleak humor, unconventional editing, and jagged soundscapes, and it demonstrates Mambéty’s commitment to telling African stories in new ways.
Note: Some animals were harmed during the making of this film. Brief early scenes depicting the inside of a slaughterhouse and the butchering of a goat can be unsettling for some.