Atlantics (2019)
Film (Original Langauge: French)
Mati Diop
Introduced by Elisa Joy White
The film is a parable and meditation on the push-pull factors of migration through the lens of desire, the quest for autonomy, and the acquisition of power by the powerless. It is a love story about a couple and a love story about a woman’s independence. Ada, when the love of her life dies at sea with a group of local men en route from Senegal to Spain, finds herself in a community literally haunted by the survivors of the capsized boat. The literal haunting involves local women possessed by the men who have returned for money due for their labor on a local skyscraper. The skyscraper developer’s exploitation of their labor is the reason for the men’s journey to Europe as they have run out of other options for survival. The more abstract haunting is a tale of communities left behind and the lives altered as loved ones take the treacherous journey abroad. It is also a coming-of-age film, in that Ada –initially betrothed to a man she does not love –takes control of her destiny and grows into a new understanding of her own capabilities and right to take ownership of her body, mind, and dreams. Director, Mati Diop, who is notably the niece of Senegalese auteur filmmaker Djibril Diop Mambéty, in her award-winning directorial debut takes up the contemporary mantle of social commentary through the film’s sincere cultural landscape and persistent backdrop of the sea. There is the Atlantic that takes one away and the Atlantic that empowers one at home.