Along the Atlantic coast, a soon-to-be-inaugurated futuristic tower looms over a suburb of Dakar. Ada, 17, is in love with Souleiman, a young construction worker. But she has been promised to another man. One night, Souleiman and his co-workers leave the country by sea, in hope of a better future. Several days later, a fire ruins Ada’s wedding and a mysterious fever starts to spread. Little does Ada know that Souleiman has returned.
Cannes 2019
Film #37
It was historical that Mati Diop was the first black woman with a film in the official competition at Cannes.
The story followed Ada (Mame Bineta Sane) who loves one man, but is being forced to marry another. She has friends who strictly adhere to their religion and friends who are more free-spirited.
The film moved a little slowly for me, but the story followed a natural course.
They tried to get rid of me
But from ocean to ocean
They gon' have to deal with me
I been overlooked, slept on
Stepped on, left for dead
Always against all odds like Pac said
I'm the living Great Gatsby
But these boys are watching quick and disappear like Banksy
From ocean to ocean, sea to sea
I'm something that you gotta see
Gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa (I bless the rains)
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had
I practice what I preach, but I ain't gon' lie
I still got…
CANNES REVIEW #4
2019 Ranked
Cannes Watches Ranked
Most of the time our image of the migration crisis is shown from our point of view, the final destination these refugees try to enter. The focus often is the arduous journey to get here and the struggle for them to start a new life from scratch in a foreign country. Mati Diop, premiering her feature debut Atlantique in Cannes’ main competition, decided to shift focus to the consequences back at home for a beautifully shot, tender and haunting romance set in the suburbs of Dakar.
As the film opens we witness a dispute between a group of construction workers and their chief about their long overdue payment. For months they have…
There is a lot to admire in this truly beautiful film but at times it’s length was felt and there was a lot of mystery and intrigue introduced and never explored that left me wanting more and pondering what I saw but also unsatisfied by certain aspects.
Watched at Cannes
Saw this at Cannes, at the same time a film about the history of sound design was playing somewhere else. I think I would have enjoyed that one more. It was my last day in Cannes and it ended on a down note after seeing the electrifying Bacurau.
What the hell is happening to this review?
Anyway, Senegalese cinema deserves more exposure, as does almost every other country that isn’t ‘murica.
They took the theme of this movie from a Tamil filim named "IYARKAI" which means "Nature"
So many Cannes titles this year left audiences haunted, the ghosts of a chaotic world and the world of the dead floated in from the sea soaking us in a feeling of uneasy reverie. I wonder if morality is intrinsic to the concept of haunting. The supernatural comes to the fore when the living fail to make right.
Loved Mame Bineta Sane in the lead role, and Diop is masterful in the way she eases in the supernatural elements. However some of the non-pro actors aren't quite up to snuff, and the story feels a bit too much like a short stretched out to 105 mins.
Cannes 2019
Film #37
It was historical that Mati Diop was the first black woman with a film in the official competition at Cannes.
The story followed Ada (Mame Bineta Sane) who loves one man, but is being forced to marry another. She has friends who strictly adhere to their religion and friends who are more free-spirited.
The film moved a little slowly for me, but the story followed a natural course.
compétition #11
« I saw your face in the wave »
deeply poetic work about the senegalese women (one in particular) left behind by their men that tried their luck at sea after much resignation related to their work conditions. even if i'm not sure i completely understood what was happening, i loved how their vengeance was imagined and portrayed, and the fact that men and women are united by it. and these images of the moving sea, the setting sun and those burning and sandy urban landscape, to that great score by fatima al qadiri, will definitely stay with me for some time.
If we resort to plebeian ideas of art and ask ourselves a question about what cinema must to do, then the answer would be following: any film should either entertain, educate or “make you think”, and preferably, all together. With that in mind, it would be a head-scratching task to define the reason why this particular one was made.
“Atlantics” is about Ada and Suleiman – two young people in love, living in Dakar. He works at a construction site, where the crew is not paid for a long time, and she’s going to enter soon into an arranged marriage with a man whom she doesn’t love. One day, Suleiman and his co-workers are leaving for Spain to earn money,…
davidehrlich 24 films
Vanessa 4,847 films
FAQ (please read before commenting)
1) Why is [movie by male director] on here? In most cases (Slumdog Millionaire, The…
Letterboxd 10 films
With so many Letterboxd members in attendance at the 72nd annual Cannes Film Festival, we decided to plunder your reviews,…
