'On the Run' tour poster inspired by Senegalese film 'Touki Bouki'
One particular shot of Beyonce and Jay-Z riding a motorbike trimmed with a bull's skull, references a scene from the 1973 Senegalese film Touki Bouki.
Recommended articles
The couple shared the news yesterday, with Beyoncé taking to Instagram to share a video announcement and two black and white promo pics of her and Jay-Z in their signature Bonnie and Clyde-inspired personas.
While we already appreciated the campaign's artistic vision, Sierra Leonian-Guinean multidisciplinary artist Ejatu Shaw pointed out another detail that makes the tour's aesthetic vision even more noteworthy.
One particular shot of Beyoncé and Jay-Z riding a motorbike trimmed with a bull's skull, references a scene from the 1973 Senegalese film 'Touki Bouki'
According to it's Wikipedia page, the film is about:
Mory, a charismatic cowherd who drives a motorcycle mounted with a bull-horned skull, and Anta, a female student, meet in Dakar. Alienated and tired of life in Senegal, they dream of going to Paris and come up with different schemes to raise money for the trip. Mory eventually contrives to steal the money, and much clothing, from the household of a wealthy homosexual while the latter is taking a shower. Anta and Mory can finally buy tickets for the ship to France. But when Anta boards the ship in the Port of Dakar, Mory, poised on the gangplank behind her, is suddenly seized by an inability to leave his roots, and he runs away madly to find his bull-horned motorcycle, only to see that it has been ruined in a crash that nearly killed the rider who had taken it. The ship sails away with Anta but not Mory while the hauntingly melodious song "Love Is Fleeting, But Rejection Lasts a Lifetime" is sung and Mory sits next to his hat on the ground, staring disconsolately at his wrecked motorcycle.
The 'lovers on the run' and 'Bonnie and Clyde' trope is something Jay-Z and Beyoncé have been pushing for years as the power couple of the music industry so it's understandable why a film like 'Touki Bouki' would resonate with the pair.
JOIN OUR PULSE COMMUNITY!
Eyewitness? Submit your stories now via social or:
Email: eyewitness@pulse.ng