Badou Boy

{{Short description|1970 Senegalese film}} {{Infobox film | name = Badou Boy | image = Badou Boy.jpg

| caption = | director = Djibril Diop Mambéty | writer = Djibril Diop Mambéty | based_on = | producer = Djibril Diop Mambéty | starring = {{plainlist | *Lamine Ba *Al Demba Ciss *Christoph Colomb *Aziz Diop Mambety }} | cinematography = Baidy Sow | editing = Andree Blanchard | music = Lalo Drame | studio = {{plainlist | * Maag Daan *Studio Kankourama }} | distributor = California Newsreel Productions | released = {{Film date|1970}} | runtime = 56 minutes | country = Senegal | language = {{plainlist | * Wolof * French }} | budget = }}

'''''Badou Boy''''' is a 1970 Senegalese film, directed by Djibril Diop Mambéty. The film follows the adventures of Badou Boy, a cheeky young man, as he travels through the streets of Dakar on the city buses.

==Plot== A sarcastic look at Senegal's capital that followed the adventures of what the director described as a "somewhat immoral street urchin who is very much like myself".<ref>{{cite web|last=Barlet |first=Olivier |author-link=Olivier Barlet |url=http://www.africultures.com/anglais/articles_anglais/Mambety.htm |title=Djibril Diop Mambety, the one and only |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060805123001/http://www.africultures.com/anglais/articles_anglais/Mambety.htm |archive-date=2006-08-05 }}</ref> The film is set against the backdrop of a bustling Dakar in the late 1960s. "Cop" believes "Boy" is a menace to society but he is merely a street kid trying to survive. As "Boy" leads "Cop" on a chase through the shantytowns to the city centre of Dakar, director Djibril Mambéty gives a nod to Charlie Chaplin's model of silent films. Mambéty was to return again and again to the theme of lonely people on the edge of society. The character of "Boy" stands out as particularly poignant. Mambéty also lays the basis for the profound critique of corrupting Western influences on Africa - a hallmark of his films.

== Reception == ''Badou Boy'' won the Silver Tanit award at the 1970 Carthage Film Festival in Tunisia. It was shown at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival.

Badou Boy remained unseen in the UK until 2006. It was instantly hailed as a lost classic.<ref>{{cite web|title=African classic film screening: Djibril Diop Mambéty's Badou Boy|url=http://www.dmu.ac.uk/Images/badou-boy_tcm6-58703.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111216052330/http://www.dmu.ac.uk/Images/badou-boy_tcm6-58703.pdf|archive-date=2011-12-16|access-date=2011-01-30|publisher=De Montfort University}}</ref> It premiered at the Africa in Motion Film Festival in October 2006 at the Filmhouse Cinema in Edinburgh.<ref>{{cite web|title=AiM Films|url=http://www.africa-in-motion.org.uk/2006/films.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200708195408/http://www.africa-in-motion.org.uk/2006/films.html|archive-date=2020-07-08|access-date=2011-01-30|publisher=Africa in Motion}}</ref>

A 4K restoration of this film premiered at the Museum of Modern Art in January 2022. The restoration was done by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project and Cineteca di Bologna at L’Immagine Ritrovata and L’Image Retrouvée laboratories from the 35mm internegative.<ref name="MoMA">{{cite web |url=http://press.moma.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/TSAP-2022-Schedule.pdf |title=To Save and Project: The 18th MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation |publisher=MoMA |access-date=2022-01-15}}</ref>

==Cast== * Lamine Bâ as Badou Boy * Al Demba Ciss as Brigadier Al * Christoph Colomb as Friend * Aziz Diop Mambety as Landlord

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== * {{IMDb title|id=0201445|title=Badou Boy}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Badou Boy}} Category:1970 films Category:Senegalese short films Category:Wolof-language films Category:Films directed by Djibril Diop Mambéty Category:Films shot in Senegal Category:1970 short films Category:Films set in Senegal