Winner of the Grand Prix at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, Mati Diop’s Atlantics tells a story of migration both mournful and magical. Too often we must bear witness to the horrors that unfold as migrants dare to cross the sea in search of a better life and instead encounter unwelcome faces and inhuman conditions — and that is if they are lucky enough to make it over in one piece. We have all seen the photographs of shipwrecked souls, drowned because they dared hope that somewhere life would be better.
But what happens to those who are left behind — in particular, the women who are left by their men as the latter migrate to seek work? What fate lies in store for these women, abandoned to fend for themselves amid those who remain, circling like wolves? That is the story that Atlantics tells, and it does so beautifully. That it is currently available to stream on Netflix shouldn’t stop you from seeing it on the biggest screen possible, if you can, and allowing yourself to be swallowed up entirely by its surreal storytelling.
A New Life
Souleiman (Ibrahima Traoré) is a teenage construction worker who hasn’t been paid in months, despite the fact that the tower on which he has been working — a glassy, futuristic behemoth that wouldn’t be out of place in a post-apocalyptic thriller — is almost ready to be opened. Desperate for a better life, Souleiman and his compatriots depart by sea in the dead of night to seek work in Spain. They do so without even bidding farewell to the girlfriends with whom they dance the nights away at a small beachside bar.
One of these girls is Ada (Mame Bineta Sane), who despite her burgeoning relationship with Souleiman is actually betrothed to another man, the wealthy Omar (Babacar Sylla). Abandoned without a goodbye by the man she loves, and increasingly uncomfortable with the man to whom she is to be wed, Ada retreats quietly within herself. The day of her wedding to Omar, Ada’s friends ooh and ahh over the beautiful home he has made for her, but Ada only cares about one thing — the whispered rumors that Souleiman has returned.
The wedding is disrupted by a mysterious fire that begins in Ada’s soon-to-be bedroom, leaving an ominous black crater in the center of the grand white bed Omar has purchased for her. The young detective who is assigned the case, Issa (Amadou Mbow), suspects Ada and Souleiman, but he has his own problems — a mysterious illness that strikes him down with severe fever and exhaustion. Soon, it becomes clear that the young men who fled across the sea have indeed returned — but only in spirit, not in body.
Beyond the Horizon
Diop combines the all-too-real drama of migration with the supernatural qualities of a ghost story to create a film that is altogether unique. It is a haunting vision of love and loss, as well as the rebirth that is necessary in order for those who remain to survive. Ada evolves from quiet and obedient girl into a strong and stubborn young woman over the course of the film; her inability to imagine a life with Omar as long as one with Souleiman remains possible gives her the strength to finally stand up to the pressures of her family, friends and the rest of society and seek a life of her own, free from the pressure to please a powerful man just because she has been told it is her duty to do so. Atlantics is a potent coming-of-age tale with far more at stake than most of those coming out of Hollywood, and yet part of what makes Ada’s story so powerful is that, when you strip it down to its barest bones, it is such a universal one — that of a girl in love with a boy she cannot have.
The supernatural elements of Atlantics, including the deeply unsettling possession of living humans by departed souls, feel discomfitingly realistic in the hands of Diop and her masterful cinematographer, Claire Mathon (who among this year’s acclaimed releases also lensed Celine Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire). The seaside suburbs of Senegal’s capital city of Dakar are painted in ghostly, watery sunlight that occasionally makes them seem to be a mirage. Mathon frequently turns her camera on the horizon, blurring the lines between sky and sea and capturing all of the swirling light and color inherent in each. These shots give the illusion of something magical lying just across the water, whether it be the bright future that Souleiman and his friends hope for or something much more menacing.
In Mathon’s hands, the sea is truly a gateway to another world, one that beckons to us with the promise of something equal parts glorious and dangerous. In a world that seems capable of so much, the ghostly spirits that haunt Atlantics are barely a stretch of one’s imagination. This feeling is further accentuated by Fatima Al Qadiri’s score, which combines spooky synths with more traditional sounds to create an aural collage that perfectly suits the film’s story. If the collaboration of Diop, Mathon and Al Qadiri does not convince you of the power of having women — especially women of color — work together to tell cinematic stories, then you’re probably a lost cause, because from where I’m sitting, the singularity of Atlantics comes from the talent of the women behind it, and shows how starved Hollywood is for more voices like theirs.
Atlantics: Conclusion
This is only Diop’s first feature, but Atlantics proves that she is an artist with an elegant and steady hand. While the hype surrounding Netflix releases directed by Martin Scorsese and Noah Baumbach threatens to shove the streaming service’s other new films to the back of the queue, I fervently hope you’ll also make time for the magic of Atlantics.
What do you think? Will you be checking out Atlantics on Netflix? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Atlantics was released for streaming on Netflix on November 29, 2019. You can find more international release dates here.
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