“Despite its rather serious and finally tragic appraisal of Senegal’s quagmire within the world system, HYENAS resonates primarily for its lacerating comedic writing and pacing.” - Clayton Dillard, Slant
“HYENAS is vividly specific to its place and time, incorporating folklore and the African oral tradition while incisively capturing that ’90s moment when many former colonies underwent forced liberalization. But the lessons of HYENAS seem forever resonant. In these current times of scarcity and crisis, as we’ve frequently found ourselves relying on the philanthropy of the very billionaires who entrench corporate inequities, I’ve returned often to the film’s pyrrhic visions of justice under capitalism.” - Devika Girish, Film Comment
Wednesday, February 4, 6:00 p.m. & Sunday, February 8, 12:00 p.m. | Linguère Ramatou returns to her impoverished Senegalese hometown of Colobane after decades abroad, now fabulously wealthy. She offers the townspeople an extraordinary bargain: she will give them billions in exchange for the death of Draman Drameh, the local shopkeeper who seduced and abandoned her in youth, denying paternity of their child. Initially horrified, the townspeople gradually succumb to material temptation, accumulating consumer goods on credit against the expected windfall. Mambéty adapts Dürrenmatt's The Visit into a satirical allegory about Africa's relationship with global capitalism, structural adjustment, and moral compromise. The film's theatrical style and bitter humor expose how economic desperation transforms community solidarity into collective complicity.
African Cinema: From Independence to Now Lecture Series | January 28–May 17, 2026
This film series explores 65 years of African cinema, from anti-colonial resistance to digital reinvention. Through 14 films from across the continent, African filmmakers reimagine the medium as a tool for decolonization, self-representation, and artistic innovation, connecting the political with the poetic. Presented in collaboration with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Art History, Theory, and Criticism department. Lecturer: Delinda Collier, Professor of Art History. Synopses by Delinda Collier. Select titles offered with encores; encores do not include lecture.
The Film Center is ADA accessible. This presentation will be projected without open captions. The theater is hearing-loop equipped. For accessibility requests, please email filmcenter@saic.edu