Atlantics

A still from Mati Diop’s Cannes Grand Prix-winning ATLANTICS (2019) which is available to stream - and you must! - on Netflix.

What an otherworldly yet completely of this world film. Set in a contrasting Dakar: the very rich and those that live in slums, the film opens with a bunch of pissed of construction workers who have not been paid for three months. Many of them decide to risk everything and flee their home where there is no hope of a future. The young men try to reach Spain by crossing in boats. The protagonist of the film is a teenage girl who is betrothed to a very wealthy businessman, but in reality she loves one of the boys who has gone off to see. Between each scene we get hypnotic shots of the Atlantic Ocean, as seen of the coast and corniche of Dakar. The presence of the ocean is primal, fairytale like, cataclysmic, and calming.

In a blink, the movie becomes something else entirely. The young women who have been left by their boyfriends become the spirits of the boyfriends. We learn that the ship has capsized and the boys have drowned. The girls take on the spirits of the young men. This is displayed via some very creepy zombie contact lenses. (You don’t need much to conjure a feeling of fable and myth amongst a beach-surrounded city.) The film is hypnotic and startling and funny and just wonderfully weird. French-African actress Mati Diop’s directing debut, the film won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2019. It’s a small-scale stunner.

Still from ATLANTICS (2019) directed by Mati Diop

ATLANTICS (2019) directed by Mati Diop

Mame Bineta Sane stars in ATLANTICS (2019) directed by Mati Diop

Director Mati Diop, the first black female to win at Cannes.