African Film Archive

Atlantics

2019 — Mati Diop — Senegal, France, Belgium

feature · drama, romance, fantasy · new-voices

Mati Diop's feature debut follows Ada, a seventeen year old in a Dakar suburb in love with a construction worker who leaves by sea for Spain, and made Diop the first Black woman to compete for the Palme d'Or, where the film won the Grand Prix.

Fun fact: The feature grew directly out of Diop's 2009 short Atlantiques, revisiting the same migration story a decade later from a female point of view.

Notes: Later acquired and distributed by Netflix. Pioneer priority: second Mati Diop entry alongside Atlantiques (2009).

Verification: verified · Sources: [1] [2] [3]

Poster source: Wikipedia