Finye (1982)

Blowing One Way or the Other. - Finye review by griggs

There's a moment where Bah's grandfather just sits there, saying almost nothing, and somehow carries more authority than the entire military government put together — that's basically the whole film in one shot.

The first half has a real Dazed and Confused looseness — not tone, just shape. Kids getting high, stressing about exams, falling in love, mostly just drifting. Politics hasn't properly arrived yet.

Souleymane Cissé, though, is juggling three worlds at once — the old traditional order, the military's rigid new one, and the students stuck in between who turn out to be the actual future. Nothing here is simple good-versus-bad, except maybe the governor's grip on power, and even that starts to look shaky the longer he holds on to it. Fitting, for a film called The Wind — everything in it is in motion, blowing one way or the other, and nobody stays upright for long.

Balla Moussa Keita plays the governor with zero scenery-chewing, which somehow makes him scarier. Goundo Guissé's Batrou has a stubborn streak buried under teenage boredom, and I warmed to her fast.

Visually, it's gorgeous — a light, sun-bleached palette that makes the whole thing feel properly alive rather than dated.

Once the strikes hit, the film tightens into something angry and urgent. A romance steamrolled by history, and better for it.