Critics reviews

Mambéty boldly takes what is essentially a comedy of human foibles and turns it into a deeply unsettling exploration of the degenerative ravages of capitalism... It’s a haunting, dreamlike, often absurd morality play, told with roguish mischievousness that only Mambéty could conjure.

Mambéty took on his ambitious mission in the style of African magic realism, transporting the story into an imaginary version of the very real Senegalese area of Colobane.

Mambéty never made another feature, although he did leave a 45-minute short meant to be part of a larger trilogy. A bold and splashy homage to Dakar’s street children, “The Little Girl Who Sold the Sun” (which can be streamed via Kanopy) is as affirmative as “Hyenas” is pessimistic.

Despite moments of comic exaggeration... Mambety lets a restrained, almost contented fatalism settle over the film and its hero.

Despite its rather serious and finally tragic appraisal of Senegal’s quagmire within the world system, Hyènas resonates primarily for its lacerating comedic writing and pacing.

The narrative moves at a different pace to European cinema, a languid, sun-beaten mood, with crisp, clear, bright visuals.

The Visit is one great play; whether this is one great movie as well is something I’m still trying to figure out. But it’s certainly a serious adapatation, and you shouldn’t miss it.