Returning to this film after a gap of many years during this pandemic, I find it just as entertaining as I remember, even if I remember only the funny dialogise. Here we have another classic with less votes and not a single review. Like other Jean Rouch films from this timeline, this one features his obsession for chickens, his regulars and a pickup truck. Mainly Lam, nicknamed Mr. Chicken with the company of Tallou, assisted by Damoure. Together, they to look out for chickens in the bush and to then sell them in Niamey. The 2CV van is also an essential character which will take them into the bush. A few kilometers away, the real fun begins, the things they experienced during the trip, full of pitfalls, they slip from one gag to the next.
However, it is not only the plot that is the most important part of the film but the interactions between the characters. There are funny lines for ex: come and see the buffalo that stopped me from taking a dump, your home is your stomach, the devils are mad, but we conned them.
This will do for now and I bet you that there are many more maddening situations and dialogues in the movie. The main trio are awesome, their innocence makes the adventure so much fun giving the film an ethnographic treatment rooted with typical West African elements. They have a great comic encore, and they know how to create the necessary chemistry between them to give verisimilitude to a very surreal situation.
I cannot guarantee that everyone will have a satisfying experience with the depiction, and it will not work for all. There are critics who expressed dissent on Rouch, mainly Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembene. Regardless, Jean Rouch tenacity made him a pioneering force in the region's independent filmmaking scene, and many consider him as the grandfather of Cinema in the Niger. But never mind, that doesn't take away the joy of the ethno-comic road movie in any scene that contains all the African spirit.
