Return of an Adventurer (1966)
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- The Wild West comes to Africa in this raucous send-up of cultural colonialism - an influence on Djibril Diop Mambety's 'Touki Bouki' - in which a young Nigerien man returns home from a trip to the United States with suitcase full of cowboy outfits in tow. Donning the western wear, he and his friends bring a taste of lawless frontier mayhem to their town.
- Actors:
- Harouna Diarra, Djingarey Abdoulaye Maïga, Zalika Souley, Boubakar Souna
- Directors:
- Moustapha Alassane
- Aka:
- Le retour d'un aventurier
- Genres:
- Action & Adventure
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Reviews (1) of Return of an Adventurer
The Good, the Bad, and the Nigerien - Return of an Adventurer review by griggs
The Great Adventurer kicks off with a suitcase full of cowboy gear arriving in Niger, and from there the absurdity practically writes itself. A young man comes back from the States dressed for a showdown, and soon he and his friends are strutting through their town like they’ve just ridden off a John Wayne film. It’s goofy, but it’s also sly—it pokes fun at how American culture gets imported, copied, and paraded like it belongs everywhere.
The film has a scrappy, homemade feel, which just makes it more endearing. It’s rough in spots and doesn’t always move at a clip, but the energy is there, and the sight of these self-styled cowboys turning their town into a mini Wild West showdown—horses, giraffes and all—is both ridiculous and kind of brilliant. You can see how later films like Touki Bouki borrowed this idea of clothes and performance as rebellion.
It may stumble, but it proves a cowboy hat can carry a whole film halfway across the world—even with giraffes in the frame.