Touki Bouki (1973)

_Touki Bouki_ is a strange, stylish trip through ’70s Dakar, following two young lovers desperate to get to Paris. It’s got that scrappy, rebellious energy—lots of quick cuts, pop music, and surreal moments that give it a real French New Wave feel. But it’s not just fun and games. The slaughterhouse imagery is appropriately grim and sticks with you, casting a dark shadow over the whole thing. Mambéty’s saying something big about escape, identity, and what’s lost chasing a dream.

I don't what to say about this movie. One thing is very certain. The Avant-Garde movement of the 1960s and 1970s is blatantly clear in the styling of this film. That alone makes this one work a significant, historical mile-post in cultural cinema. Typically avant-garde, the film's sarcasm pointed at the bourgeois (capitalist) class is not only quite biting, but also quite humorous. It uses the juxtaposition of horrendously misfitting music as a means to an end. And it works beautifully. Other than it's class struggle element, I'm not sure what else is relevant in the 21st century. But as historical cinema, it's clearly valuable.