Badou Boy Film

Djibril Diop Mambéty | Senegal 1970 | 56m | Wolof with English subtitles | 15

Synopsis

Senegalese maverick filmmaker Djibril Diop Mambéty is still regarded as one of the most important African filmmakers of all time: a visionary both politically and creatively. But as a lone dissenter, allergic to institutional obedience, his work was deliberately ‘lost’ by those in power. Rarely seen yet often talked about, the film, like its creator, has been an enigma. This screening of Badou Boy will be a rare opportunity to see the film in the UK. The plot looks at a “badou boy”, or a bad boy, who survives in the bustling city of Dakar in the late 1960s, a turbulent time. Part parody, part fable, the film borrows from the strategic and economic resources of the gangster genre and psychedelic punk aesthetics in order to comment on the postcolonial experience in a newly independent nation.

This screening is part of AiM’s focus on Africa’s Lost Classics, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)

Showings

Bristol / Thu 26 Oct / 7pm
£5 - £7 / Arnolfini / Book Now

Glasgow / Mon 30 Oct / 6pm
Free but ticketed / Glasgow School of Art / Book Now