Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Two young people attempt to escape the poverty of their native Senegal and move to Paris. They raise some funds by committing petty crimes.Touki Bouki is a very distinctive film that's for sure. The African continent hasn't been renowned for producing a great deal of important movies but this one certainly qualifies as such. It has a pretty basic story-line but it's not a plot-driven affair at all really. In actual fact it is quite experimental in approach much of the time and seems to have been influenced by the European New Wave films quite a bit. But what gives it its edge is that within that it is very specifically Senegalese. It's not often we see much from this part of the world represented in cinema, especially not from over forty years ago and certainly rarely from actual Senegalese film-makers. It's this Senegalese colour and authenticity, combined with the bold experimental cinematic presentation that makes this one very much stand out. In truth, I don't think I fully appreciated all its nuances on first viewing and would certainly like to return to it sometime in the future. Be warned though, it does contain some pretty brutal scenes of animal slaughter which make for difficult viewing. All-in-all though, this unusual film has a great deal of character and its strong sense of location makes for fascinating viewing.

It is indeed hard to believe that over the years, the magic of Europe as a golden land of opportunities has not faded. It is also unfortunate that Europe continues to charm countless innocent, impoverished men and women from Asia, Africa and Latin America to risk their lives in order to reach European soil with the sole objective of making a lot of money. Some of these daredevils can be found in the Senegalese film 'Touki Bouki' directed by maverick Djibril Diop Mambéty. He has ensured that Senegal is not shown in any kind of bad light as hunger and scenes of poverty which have become regular features of other African films about Africa have been deliberately avoided. It is a mystery how Touki Bouki's comical situations have been termed as surreal. They are as close as possible to daily lives which prove out to be a great test for everybody. Watching the comic scenes with utmost attention, one realizes how some borders are closely guarded so that Paris continues to be far for many impoverished African youngsters. Lastly, some scenes of cruelty towards animals might drive some viewers to start hating this film. This is the only major imperfection which one can detect in this film.

An African film here about youth, about the thirst to escape from a place that parches it and the bike ride through dirt roads out to sea where a ship sails for Europe. But I want to avoid merely a museum visit or an aesthetic token from a faraway place, I want the heart that pounds behind appearances and gives rise to their breeze of color. What heart here?First are the things he says about the home that is left behind. Symbolic cows being led to slaughter and cut to the young lead riding his motorbike with cow horns on the wheel. A stolen chest, supposedly full of money to pay for a DeGaulle statue but it contains a corpse.These are the things the filmmaker knows exactly what he wants to say about. They're also the least interesting to watch for me. The young lead being wrestled by leftist students is intercut with cows being wrestled before the slaughter. The dear bike stolen by a savage white man and left broken while he's extracted with merely a broken leg. Not without nuance, but some of it is as didactic as we make fun of Hollywood.More tantalizing is the journey through these to outrun them, even more so once you realize this is the same journey the filmmaker himself made from that same port. A yearning for freedom, but the desired freedom is a life of material comforts in Europe, what every boy his age would dream about, cafés and girls. Meanwhile the girl meekly tugs along behind her childish man. There's a sense that she quietly yearns for more; but she also feels beautiful in the (stolen) pink suit and red hat, as any girl would. I like films where youth is embraced with its dreams and folly, this is one.But also a deeper heart, things which the filmmaker doesn't know how to express clearly but vaguely feels stirring. There are a few of these where the surface of the film is rippled by some hidden vortix that seems to rage in the deep, like when the girl thinks he has drowned. If the journey is Godard, this is Pasolini. This might be part of what some reviews note as sloppy technique. True. This is a man still trying to fathom how images can surround a feel.So this is it here, a journey where as these two lovers flee, they get caught up in situations that tear from them images of who they are and what their surrounding world is like, images the air takes along which become the film. In the end one self is left behind, the one who has not outrun this world.

Disorienting and at times even a bit schizophrenic, this is an extraordinarily vibrant, pulsating, and eccentric film. Comparisons to the anarchic, jumpy, free-associative style of the French New Wavers are not far off, but there's something much more erotic and carnal in the film's playfulness.The story of self-assured college beauty Anta and her fella - Mory the motorcycle-riding herdsman - starts in Dakar and wistfully wanders toward Paris, the seemingly unattainable city of their dreams. Their get-rich-quick schemes and the breezy, colorful manner in which they unfold are funny and inspired.Along the way, there are sequences of both utter hilarity and genuine depth, although the film does sometimes seem unsure of its many potentially-symbolic representations. But the stylistic narrative and experimental technical aspects are so full of ideas that talk of the film's minor weaknesses seems trivial.The soundtrack is outstanding, full of syncopation and polyrhythms pacing the film and giving a rich texture to the images. And there's constant movement, until the film's denouement where character, story, camera and concept fuse together in common paralysis, where all seems frozen in reflection.