This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

i know i wasted 90 mins of my life.

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

We were blessed with the presence of a Wolof language and culture guide (Rama). This was great. ;) Whenever there was confusion (which there was) we would turn to our expert and ask what on earth the people were doing. It would be explained and we would continue with the film, being enlightened. This added to the appreciation of the film. Some highlights: The dancing was unique and quite extraordinary - our Rama witnessed such dancing when she was in Senegal.The scene of Dramen Drameh driving the Peuguot convertible around the hunter round 'n round was quite artistic and profoundly touching. An interesting way to spend the last day of your life. The hats - particularly the soldier hats. The yellow shoes were a nice touch too. It all added to the humor of the film making it light despite the darker undertones of this exploration of the human psyche. The teacher was wise. He brought a balance and a perspective to the film, he was the prophetic voice of truth crying out in the desert. He and the doctor alone seemed to understand the deeper moral failings at work - the lure of material wealth. Dramen's soul came to represent the soul of the village, and when it died so did the soul of the village.

I don't understand the glowing reviews for this movie. I suspect the previous reviewers don't actually know Durrenmat's actual work. What makes Den Besuch Der Alten Dame, the original play, work is it's humorous qualities. Durrenmatt believed that true tragedy no longer resonated properly with audiences, so he created a black comedy of epic proportions. It's grim, certainly, but it's also absurd and with a few characters who are over the top just the right amount. In Hyenas, all humor is gone. This movie attempts to be pure tragedy and, as Durrenmatt believed such an attempt would, it fails.The movie does have it's virtues. The actress playing Ramatou is wonderfully stoic, and it suits the character. Setting it in rural Africa was a brilliant idea as well. The movie as a whole though is dry, slow paced, and often times grating (the two castrated characters are the comic relief in the play, and in the movie they've been turned into whimpering, horrible things, for example).It's too bad. The American adaptation from the 60s stays truer to the play than this movie does, not in the details, but in spirit and tone. See that one instead. For that matter, it also has a major symbolic motif from the play that's entirely lacking here. When the American film version of a European play is better than a french version of the same play, something has gone terribly wrong. I give this movie a three, for the few things it did get right.

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.

Hyenes, Mambety's avent-guard, surrealistic film captures the real heart and soul of the human social and economical blood thirst for money, when stopping to think about the different animal symbols in this film like the hyena, vulture, and yes even the monkey; you can't help feeling ashamed to be part of the big machine, we call progress. than again is that not what human nature, or the nature of animals is all about? Survival of the fittest. Mambety not only nails the human viciousness and easily influenced character on the head, but he slaps you in the face with our greed. A real plus to this movie is the musical language of Wolof. a must see movie and language, which cannot be matched.