Badou Boy

In Badou Boy, Mambéty delves deeper into thematic issues, the formal tools and the adorable insolence he unleashed in Contras’ City and would reveal even more so in Touki Bouki. In explicitly Chaplinesque fashion, the title character rushes frantically through the streets of Dakar to escape the constant stalking of Al Demba, a police officer who dreams of arresting him as a service to society, but who has to sweat bullets just to keep up with him. The editing and sound, meanwhile, drive the film's dizzying pace and provide brief gags that say much more about the way of life in Senegal than about what our laughter reveals at first. (Mar del Plata International FF)