Hyenas
Directed by Djibril Diop Mambety, Senegal, 1992. 113 minutes. In Wolof with English subtitles.

Source: California Newsreel

Hyenas opens with a close-up of the plodding feet of elephants, whose dusty deliberateness is echoed in the lonely village of Colobane, where the film's action takes place. Dramaan Drameh is the generous-to-a-fault grocer who allows everyone in town to buy everything from rice to liquor on credit, under the watchful eye of his scowling wife. Indebtedness is soon shown to be a village habit; in the next frames we see the town hall being relieved of its furniture by stern-faced repo men. Hope soon arrives, however, in the form of Linguere Ramatou, Dramaan Drameh's childhood sweetheart and the town's aging prodigal daughter. But, like the elephants whose image frame the narrative, Linguere Ramatou doesn't forget. Her ability to hold a grudge, combined with her wealth (she is rumored to be "richer than the World Bank," that ubiquitous creditor of Third World nations) means that Colobane quickly becomes even deeper in the red than before, with selling its soul the only way out. With this adaptation of Swiss author Frederich Durrenmatt's play The Visit of the Old Woman, acclaimed Senegalese filmmaker Djibril Diop Mambety triumphantly returns to the movies after a more than 20 year hiatus. Mambety manages to turn Durrenmatt's bizarre revenge tragi-comedy into a postmodern allegory of the neocolonial dependency complex. The lush cinematography and the superb acting make this film a must-see.

- Jeannine DeLombard