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.
아틀란틱스, 애틀랜틱스
Gorgeous! Brilliant! Fuck, this is a cool film.
I'm glad I got to watch it with absolutely no concept of what it was about. For some reason, every single thing I've seen written about this movie so far has massive spoilers. Just watch it, don't look anything up. Let yourself be a bit confused and then feel the joy as it all comes together.
80
A film haunted by its own yearning for a better future. Mati Diop's debut feature floats between realism and ghostly transient spaces without a hitch, and is packed with heavy, perfectly realized performances. Exists in a methodical, repetitive state of elemental grace and harsh ideas. Just gorgeous. Don't let this one out of sight - catch it on Netflix.
A deeply soul-searing masterpiece concerning the infinite and metaphysical power of the human spirit’s collision with the enormous, ever-expanding network at the helm of humanity’s obsession with the material. We are not worthy of the glory.
Enigmatic and absorbing.
An emotionally grounded slice of spiritual realism that manages to be fascinatingly eerie without ever delving into the world horror, instead, using the powers of love and loss to explore the mysteries of the afterlife. Featuring some of the most richly-layered sounds and imagery seen in a film so far this year, Atlantics is absolutely stunning from the first frame to the last.
Mati Diop is one to watch.
Flight towards and from immateriality. A tale of two movies a caputlist ghost story of runaway bodies and a gothic romance. There is also two strong aesthetic pushes on Diop's approach, the hallucinatory images that exist as pure texture and a desire to present connection as a way to give primary quality back to the body (I must add both narrative strands move between them). Those strands are never concilied by Diop's direction, but their divorce finds its own form of meaning. To love Atlantics one has to have some tolerance to its occasional lapses of festivalits as it often feels like a great fantastic film drowning on film festival tics. Overall, a very good first feature and I hope as people find it in Netflix, they use to jump in Diop's earlier less compromised shorter work.
"Your eyes never left me. They were there, within me, pouring their light into the depths."
Mati Diop's churning and haunting debut feature seems to defy definition. Like the sea its beautiful title evokes, Atlantics (or, if you prefer, Atlantique) contains multitudes, as a coming-of-age romance, as a ghost story, as a worker's thriller. Diop's deft hand impeccably guides the viewer through these tone shifts, and the end result is chilling, if not entirely effective. Something in the film's pace left me a bit cold and at arm's length. There's so much beauty in the film (Claire Mathon's cinematography is some of the best of the year), and I imagine it'll stay with me for a while, but it's a film I admire more than I love.
Still, Diop proves to be a major talent. I can't wait to see what she does next.
Wow, really loved this! Wish I’d seen it in theaters, as I ended up watching this in parts on Netflix instead. But nevertheless it is stunning and effective. An incredible feature debut for sure! Will very much look forward to seeing her next film. Fantastic music as well!
O cartaz e o material de divulgação do filme antecipam o que encontraremos nele: muita beleza, sob um banho de neon. A leitura da sinopse, por outro lado, conduz-nos a um terreno realista mui distinto. E o grande mérito da diretora Mati Diop é transitar com sucesso entre dois terrenos aparentemente concorrentes: o filme é muito duro em sua denúncia das más condições de trabalho em Dakar e, ao mesmo tempo, é belíssimo em suas emulações românticas, interditadas pela vigilância das leis muçulmanas, cerceadoras das vontades e prazeres femininos. O roteiro é demasiado simples, mas a condução directiva faz com que ele cresça bastante: a encenação está além do entrecho aqui. E a colaboração do elenco foi fundamental - sem contar que qualquer pessoa apaixonar-se-ia pelo formoso Suleiman... Fotografia magnífica: o título oceânico faz jus! (WPC>)
Review In A Nutshell:
Impressed by its ability to incorporate supernatural components into this tale of passionate romance. Atlantics is a debut that speaks on the hindering culture and conditions of West Africa; unpaid workers, citizens searching for a brighter future, women encouraged to marry into wealth. It is a viewpoint of life that is horrific as it is melancholic. That being said, for a film that possesses such ambition is a mode of storytelling that feels dry in its essence, lacking excitement, and abstract with its characters. It lays down its ideas, concepts and themes without truly giving them the exploration that they are due, and with that, I found the entire thing quite difficult to grasp. Atlantics is a film that seems to be enticing on paper but lacklustre in actual delivery.
I'm glad I caught this in the cinema. Even if there were only two other people in there with me. Its down to earth yet ethereal and heartfelt with a fine central performance from Mame Bineta Sane. Hopefully with this being on Netflix it will gain some traction.
a haiku hot take
marooned with a man
while anchored to another
who's sunken treasure
Atlantics is a great example of a film with very interesting themes and things to say, but not a lot of interesting ways to say them. It looks fine and the acting’s fine, the use of music and the weird, dreamlike tone are above average, and my only real complaint is that many of the shots feel like they didn’t have a ton of effort put into them, even if they look pretty nice. It all adds up to an above-average Netflix arthouse film that’ll disappear to the sands of time before you know it. It’s interesting enough while it’s on, but there’s just nothing very exciting about watching Atlantics.
Inspector: “Where is Souleiman Fall?”
Katie 34 films
open to suggestions 😘
