Screening: Atlantics (Mati Diop, 2019)

ATLANTICS

Part of the series: Sound Off: A Celebration of Women Composers

Director: Mati Diop

Cast: Ibrahima Traoré, Mama Sane, Amadou Mbow, Nicole Sougou

106 minutes

France/Senegal/Belgium

Wolof, French, English, Arabic

Winner of the Cannes Grand Jury Prize, Mati Diop’s much-anticipated directorial debut is a twist on a ghost story. The film traces the lives of a pair of young lovers in Dakar, Senegal, who are pulled apart by an arranged marriage and a fatal sea-crossing. Central to the haunting quality of Atlantics is Fatima Al Qadiri’s electronically infused, ambient score. Al Qadiri, a conceptual artist and musician, folds sounds of the sea and the city into the score, reflecting the film’s central themes.