HYENAS: Satire From Senegal!

Hyenas (1992). 

A Senegalese film adaptation of Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s Swiss-German play The Visit, presents an intimate story of love and revenge that pulls the curtain back on capitalism—exposing the essential dynamic within a society centered around money and material accumulation. Written and directed by Djibril Diop Mambéty, the creator of the African new-wave landmark, Touki Bouki, with a soundtrack mixing traditional music with Western movie motifs by his brother, the singer-songwriter Wasis Diop. 

"Presenting a spiritual sequel to Touki Bouki, as well as critique of neocolonialism and consumerism, Mambéty’s rich allegory both encapsulates and transcends the complexity of the postcolonial African experience. In the words of film scholar Clyde Taylor, “[Hyenas] is singular in leaving no ideological or sociological space for any viewer to hide, African or foreign, black or white, female or male, in witnessing the moral crisis of contemporary humanity from an African viewpoint.”- Harvard Film Archive

“The hyena is an animal of Africa. Singularly wild. It practically almost never kills. First cousin to the vulture. It knows how to sniff out illness in others. And then is capable of following, for a whole season, a sick lion. From a distance. Across the Sahel. To feast one evening on its corpse. Peacefully.”  —Djibril Diop Mambéty