An old lover may be reaching out from beyond the grave in Director Mati Diop’s haunting film from Senegal,
Atlantics (
Atlantique).
Set in the outskirts of Dakar on Senegal’s Atlantic coast, Diop’s film tells the story of Ada (Mame Bineta Sane), a young woman who is in love with a construction worker named Souleiman (Ibrahima Traoré) but is already promised to another man. After Souleiman heads for Spain to seek a better future, he is lost at sea and a devastated Ada prepares to go through with her original wedding plans. But strange things begin to happen that might just thwart those plans.
Director Mati Diop made history as the first black woman ever to compete in the Cannes Film Festival. Atlantics was nominated for the prestigious Palme d'Or and took home the Grand Jury Prize. The film is now Senegal’s official entry for Best International Feature for the 92nd Academy Awards.
Following the Eastern Region Special Projects Committee’s Global Cinema Series screening in the DGA’s New York Theater in New York on October 15, Diop discussed the making of Atlantics in a conversation moderated by Director Michael Almereyda (Marjorie Prime). She is also scheduled to discuss the film following the DGA Special Projects Global Cinema screening in Los Angeles on November 19.
Diop’s other directorial works include the documentary feature A Thousand Suns; the documentary short Atlantiques; and the short films Snow Canon, Big in Vietnam and Liberian Boy.
You can listen to Diop's Q&A by clicking the podcast episode embedded below. You can find more DGA podcast episodes here.