Mati Diop makes an auspicious feature directorial debut with Atlantics, an original, haunting and dazzling film that cannot be compared to any other film.
World premiering at the 2019 Cannes Film Fest (in competition), Atlantics won the Jury Grand Prize, immediately establishing its Franco-Senegalese writer-director as a major talent to watch.
Diop is not exactly an obscure figure, who emerged “out of nowhere.” She is connected to African-cinema via her uncle, Djibril Diop Mambéty, who had directed the 1973 film Touki Bouki.
She may also be recognized to some viewers as an actor, having played the young woman who pulls away from her father in Claire Denis’ 35 Shots of Rum in 2008, and co-star on Simon Killer, in 2012 (among others)
The new feature (and its title) is an expanded version of Diop’s 2009 short, “Atlantiques,” which had played in some major film festivals.
Labels don’t do justice to many films, especially not to this one, which has been described as a hybrid of art and genre film, and a spooky immigrants ghost story–it is both and more.
Set mostly on and around the beaches of Dakar in Senegal, Atlantics, the movie, at least on one level, is a romantic triangle. Ada (Mame Bineta Sane), the sensual and carefree protagonist, is torn between her illicit love for the penniless construction worker Souleiman (Traore) and her public acceptance of her wealthy, imperious fiancé Omar (Babacar Sylla).
When Souleiman and his fellow workers decide to risk a dangerous ocean crossing for a better life in Spain, their boat is capsized by a freak wave, and they all drown in the storm.
His mother, friends, and an inspector conduct an investigation about his whereabouts, but Ada denies any knowledge, claiming that “he is either at sea or in Spain.” Omar’s parents demand that Ada goes to a clinic for a virginity test.
Meanwhile, the women in the village begin to show bizarre signs, both physically and mentally. One girl faints, another is freezing, and still another keeps looking up.
Then, the men “return” to the bars of Dakar as white-eyed zombie spirits, who inhabit the bodies of their former girlfriends.
While the storytelling may not be entirely clear, by conventional standards, it’s the eerie mood, and dazzling imagery that make Atlantics such a memorable, even haunting film.
