By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Director: Mati Diop
Starring: Amadou Mbow | Aminata Kane | Mame Bineta Sane | Nicole Sougou | Traore
Original language title: Atlantique
Country: belgium, france, senegal
Year: 2019
Running time: 106
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10199586/reference
Chris says: “Mati Diop is a French actress of Senegalese descent best known for her debut performance as Josephine, the daughter in Claire Denis’ 35 SHOTS OF RUM; her feature directorial debut, which won the Grand Prix at Cannes this year is often stunning and occasionally confounding. Set in a suburb of coastal city Dakar, it involves a group of young men working construction on a ominous skyscraper dwarfing the city below it. One day, the men abruptly disappear, much to the chagrin of young Ada who is engaged to be married to Omar but prefers the company of one of the vanished, Souleiman.
From there, ATLANTICS swerves unexpectedly, delving into the spiritual and the supernatural. The story seems willfully obscure and moves rather tediously at times, but it just as often amicably sneaks up on the viewer, particularly through its imagery and sound design, both of which can seem commonplace (numerous shots of crashing ocean waves) until repetition and peculiar pl acement renders it otherworldly. I left the film not entirely satisfied, but certainly altered and even a little moved by its original visual and narrative language. 3.5 cats
(ATLANTICS is now streaming on Netflix.)”