Badou Boy

Badou Boy is a 1970 Senegalese short film, directed by Djibril Diop Mambéty. The film follows the adventures of Badou Boy, a cheeky young man, as he travels through the streets of Dakar on the city buses.

Badou Boy
Directed byDjibril Diop Mambéty
Written byDjibril Diop Mambéty
Produced byDjibril Diop Mambéty
Starring
  • Lamine Ba
  • Al Demba Ciss
  • Christoph Colomb
  • Aziz Diop Mambety
CinematographyBaidy Sow
Edited byAndree Blanchard
Music byLalo Drame
Production
companies
  • Maag Daan
  • Studio Kankourama
Distributed byCalifornia Newsreel Productions
Release date
  • 1970 (1970)
Running time
56 minutes
CountrySenegal
Languages
  • Wolof
  • French

Plot

A sarcastic look at Senegal's capital that followed the adventures of what the director described as a "somewhat immoral street urchin who is very much like myself".[1] The film is set against the backdrop of a bustling Dakar in the late 1960s. "Cop" believes "Boy" is a menace to society but he is merely a street kid trying to survive. As "Boy" leads "Cop" on a chase through the shantytowns to the city centre of Dakar, director Djibril Mambéty gives a nod to Charlie Chaplin's model of silent films. Mambéty was to return again and again to the theme of lonely people on the edge of society. The character of "Boy" stands out as particularly poignant. Mambéty also lays the basis for the profound critique of corrupting Western influences on Africa - a hallmark of his films.

Reception

Badou Boy won the Silver Tanit award at the 1970 Carthage Film Festival in Tunisia. It was shown at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival.

Badou Boy remained unseen in the UK until 2006. It was instantly hailed as a lost classic.[2] It premiered at the Africa in Motion Film Festival in October 2006 at the Filmhouse Cinema in Edinburgh.[3]

A 4K restoration of this film premiered at the Museum of Modern Art in January 2022. The restoration was done by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project and Cineteca di Bologna at L’Immagine Ritrovata and L’Image Retrouvée laboratories from the 35mm internegative.[4]

Cast
  • Lamine Bâ as Badou Boy
  • Al Demba Ciss as Brigadier Al
  • Christoph Colomb as Friend
  • Aziz Diop Mambety as Landlord

References
  1. Barlet, Olivier. "Djibril Diop Mambety, the one and only". Archived from the original on 2006-08-05.
  2. "African classic film screening: Djibril Diop Mambéty's Badou Boy" (PDF). De Montfort University. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-12-16. Retrieved 2011-01-30.
  3. "AiM Films". Africa in Motion. Archived from the original on 2020-07-08. Retrieved 2011-01-30.
  4. "To Save and Project: The 18th MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation" (PDF). MoMA. Retrieved 2022-01-15.


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