For July, we'll be watching a real masterpiece, one of Sight & Sound's Greatest Films of All Time, Touki Bouki.
The Senegalese feature is directed by the renowned poet and director Djibril Diop Mambéty, who had never directed a film before. The film was funded by a $30,000 grant from the Senegalese government, with Senegal having only gained sovereignty from France thirteen years prior, making it one of the first films to be made in Senegal without French funding.
Seamlessly blending editing and cinematographic techniques of the French New Wave with Senegalese oral folk traditions, Touki Bouki is a duo-on-the-run movie gone surreal.
Mory (Magaye Niang), a motorcyclist and cowherder, meets Anta (Mareme Niang), a disillusioned University student. The two of them become convinced that their lives would be better in Paris and set out on a path of chaos to try and get there.
Creating a dialogue between French and West African filmmaking techniques, the film interrogates the effects of colonialism and hybridisation.
Full of punch and pulchritude, the film's costume design was expertly tailored and crafted by Djibril's brother, Aziz. Aziz went on to work on all of his brother's films, sharing an inspirational relationship of mutual artistic influence. Mory delivers some of the most well-tailored suits we've seen on screen, and Anta's looks are just incredible.
To replicate, seek out a wide-brimmed hat and decorate with your favourite summer scarf. Pair with a well-fitting blazer and gold-rimmed sunglasses for something equally suave yet playful.
To replicate, seek out a wide-brimmed hat and decorate with your favourite summer scarf. Pair with a well-fitting blazer and gold-rimmed sunglasses for something equally suave yet playful.
"Oral tradition is a tradition of images. What is said is stronger than what is written; the word addresses itself to the imagination, not the ear. Imagination creates the image and the image creates cinema, so we are in direct lineage as cinema’s parents."
– Djibril Diop Mambéty
– Djibril Diop Mambéty
Djibril Diop Mambéty has an incredible filmography, and we would highly recommend delving into his oeuvre. For related viewing, we would also recommend Jean-Luc Godard's docufiction La Chinoise (1967).
Watch 'Touki Bouki' on Internet Archive
Best, Ula
