Touki Bouki is a 1973

1973 in film

The year 1973 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*The Marx Brothers' Zeppo Marx divorces his second wife, Barbara Blakely. Blakely would later marry actor/singer Frank Sinatra....

 Senegalese

Cinema of Senegal

The cinema of Senegal is a relatively small film industry which experienced its prime from the 1960s through to the early 1980s, but has since declined to less than five feature films produced in the last ten years.-Early films: 1955-1969:...

 drama film

Drama film

A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...

, directed by Djibril Diop Mambéty

Djibril Diop Mambéty

Djibril Diop Mambéty was a Senegalese film director, actor, orator, composer and poet. Though he made only a small number of films, they received international acclaim for their original and experimental cinematic technique and non-linear, unconventional narrative style. Born to a Muslim family...

. It was shown at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival

1973 Cannes Film Festival

The 26th Cannes Film Festival was held on May 10–25, 1973. At this festival two new non-competitive sections were added: 'Étude et documents' and 'Perspectives du Cinéma Français' ....

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The film was restored in 2008 at Cineteca di Bologna / L’Immagine Ritrovata Laboratory by the World Cinema Foundation.

Plot

A pair of lovers, Mory and Anta, fantasize about fleeing Dakar for a mythic and romanticized France. The film follows them as they try to scavenge and hustle the funds for their escape. They both make it to the steamliner that would transport them to Paris, but before it disembarks, Mory is drawn back to Dakar and cannot succumb to the seduction of the West.

Cast

• Aminata Fall as "Aunt Oumy"
• Ousseynou Diop as "Charlie"
• Magaye Niang as "Mory"
• Mareme Niang as "Anta"

Production

Based on his own story and script, Djibril Diop Mambéty made Touki Bouki with a budget of $30,000 – obtained in part from the Senegalese government. Though influenced by French New Wave

French New Wave

The New Wave was a blanket term coined by critics for a group of French filmmakers of the late 1950s and 1960s, influenced by Italian Neorealism and classical Hollywood cinema. Although never a formally organized movement, the New Wave filmmakers were linked by their self-conscious rejection of...

, Touki Bouki displays a style all its own. Its camerawork and soundtrack have a frenetic rhythm uncharacteristic of most African films – known for their often deliberately slow-paced, linearly evolving narratives. Through jump cuts, colliding montage, dissonant sonic accompaniment, and the juxtaposition

Contrast (linguistics)

In semantics, contrast is a relationship between two discourse segments. Contrast is often overtly marked by markers such as but or however, such as in the following examples:# It's raining, but I am not taking an umbrella....

 of premodern, pastoral and modern sounds and visual elements, Touki Bouki conveys and grapples with the hybridization of Senegal

Senegal

Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...

.

Awards

• International Critics Award at 1973 Cannes Film Festival
  1973 Cannes Film Festival
  The 26th Cannes Film Festival was held on May 10–25, 1973. At this festival two new non-competitive sections were added: 'Étude et documents' and 'Perspectives du Cinéma Français' ....
  
  
• Special Jury Award at 1973 Moscow Film Festival
• Touki Bouki ranked #52 in Empire
  Empire (magazine)
  Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased Emap Consumer Media in early 2008...
  
  magazine's "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010.