Hyenas

The film from 1992 is a loose adaptation of the play La Visite de la vieille dame by Friedrich Dürrenmatt and is considered one of the most important works in African cinema.

In the poor village of Colobane, Linguère Ramatou returns as a wealthy woman after years of living abroad. The residents welcome her as a heroine, but her visit comes at a price. She promises the village a fortune, on the condition that Dramaan Drameh, the man who once humiliated and abandoned her, is punished. Slowly, it becomes clear how far people are willing to go for wealth.

With a unique blend of black humor, social criticism, and poetic imagery, Mambéty exposes the contradictions of a society caught between tradition, modernization, and economic dependency. Hyenas is a fable-like and confronting film about greed and the temptations of money, but also about human dignity and moral choices.