Hyenas

Mambéty adapts a timeless parable about human greed into a biting satire of Africa betraying the hopes of independence for the false promises of Western materialism. Years ago, in Dakar’s port district, a mysterious prostitute, Linguère, appeared for a few years, and just as suddenly disappeared. Mambéty imagined her history, and then discovered an ending for her story when he saw Ingrid Bergman in a Swiss play, The Visit. Now a rich old woman, Linguère returns to her village and bribes the avaricious inhabitants to kill her former lover. Mambéty’s satire reveals the implacable logic of the marketplace, the reign of the hyena.