‘Atlantique’, by Mati Diop
Within the programming of
The Magnetic Terrace 2022. Vulnerable Critters
Drama directed by French-Senegalese filmmaker Mati Diop that uses fantasy to address the tragedy of immigration and its local causes, with a soundtrack by Fatima Al Qadiri.
| Duration: | 1 hour 45 minutes |
Atlantics [Atlantique], directed by Mati Diop. France/Senegal/Belgium, 2019. 104’
In a working-class suburb of Dakar, several young men quit their jobs when the foreman refuses to pay their wages. They decide to leave the country and cross the Atlantic in a raft, seeking a better future. One of them is Souleiman, Ada’s lover. In addition to the parting from her beloved, Ada is facing an arranged marriage she does not want. The wait will be dramatic, because her lover’s departure also means that the sea is the sacred tomb of those who never return.
French-Senegalese actress and director Mati Diop (Paris, 1982) makes people who are invisible to society exist on the screen. She directed her first four shorts while studying at Le Fresnoy and Le Pavillon (Palais de Tokyo). The great Senegalese director Djibril Diop Mambéty is her uncle, and she shot A Thousand Suns as a tribute to his film Touki Bouki. At the Rotterdam Festival, Diop has won the Tiger Award for Short Films twice: in 2010 for Atlantics and in 2012 for Big in Vietnam. Her feature film Atlantics won the Grand Prix at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival.
