Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

EssenceStory Well Deserved Praise

SpecialsTarget Disturbing yet enthralling

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

Nicole C The film has a pretty slow tempo but the story it tells has some great meaning behind it. Ramatou represents the Western capitalist ideology and the Senegalese village a cultural way of living. When the villagers slowly rid themselves of their cultural values, they can be seen as 'selling out' to the western values, that which Ramatou represents with her wealth.Quite a lot of scenes seem pretty random to me in this film, and I did not understand what they represented. Also, the montage with the hyenas could probably have been cut down. One or two juxtapositions would be enough to make that connection strong, but too many clips of the hyenas in the wilderness just increased the distance of the film for me. Though the last scene did make me curiouser and curiouser, it was well done.The acting felt pretty dry too. There didn't seem to be that much emotion behind many of the characters, and the speech was a little awkward. I know this might be a cultural way of speech but it felt too spaced out. For example Dramaan would wait 5-10 seconds before replying or saying something while the camera is on him.Overall it is a pretty interesting film with many intriguing aspects but just dry.Read more movie reviews at: championangels.wordpress.com

Lee Eisenberg "Hyenas" is based on Friedrich Durrenmatt's play "Der Besuch der alten Dame". In it, an old woman returns to her home town, which has fallen into disrepair. She offers them a large sum if they will take revenge on the man who caused her to lose her virginity.Above all, it was interesting to see a Senegalese spin on the story. Obviously, we don't often hear much about Senegal. Of course, another aspect is the story's metaphors. There are two men who have been castrated and blinded. This is a metaphor for inter-war Germany: the reparations demanded by the Allies destroyed Germany economically, and then the German people didn't realize what the Nazi government was doing. Moreover, when the main character sees what everyone is trying to do to him, he goes to the authorities but can't get any help from them; this is like the Jews going to the authorities but to no avail. These are the sorts of stories to which we should all pay attention.

Mort-31 Dürrenmatt's play The Visit is one of the best stories ever told about guilt and honesty. Would it be ruined by being transferred to a village in Africa by a visionary director whose main quality is to create images? That's what I asked myself before watching Hyenas.And I was surprised in the most positive way. Diop Mambéty hardly changed the plot but supplied it with wonderful images which can only be found in Africa. So why didn't he change the story? Because he didn't have to. The story of the old lady taking revenge on her home village in the most cruel way fits perfectly into the context Mambéty placed it. It seems as though the story had never been imagined to take place in Switzerland; Senegal absorbs it completely.The choice of Ami Diakhate is maybe the most perfect ever made by any film or stage director, as regards the role of Dürrenmatt's old lady. She has the mark of death and bitterness on her, the condescension of the rich and the hatred of those who have been humiliated. The other actors are charming, also well-cast, though sometimes I felt they would have needed a little more directoral guidance. However, my untrained European eye was not expected too much of: in some Asian, Afroamerican or African movies (shame on me) it is very hard for me to tell the various characters apart, which was not the case in Hyenas.A wonderful story, a wonderful film. A pity that I will probably never see it again.

meninas A stunning adaptation of Friedrich Durrenmatt's coldly brilliant play, The Visit, HYENES (hyenas) actually improves on the story by transposing the action to a Senegalese village. A fabulously wealthy old woman, who was born in the village but run out in disgrace as pregnant youth, returns and promises the villagers a fortune on one condition: that they kill the man who ruined her, an aged man who is the town's popular, good-natured grocer.By moving the story from Durrenmatt's European setting to a dirt-poor African village, all the tensions are heightened, and the director Mambety sets the huge issues in high relief against the desert backdrop: justice, betrayal, revenge, guilt, greed (or need?), loyalty, and charity are played out in a searing (and searingly beautiful) desert, filmed with the grace of Bergman and written with the wryness of Bunuel. There are no good guys. It's up to you if there are bad guys. Everyone is a predator.