Cannes

Atlantics by Mati Diop
had its world premiere
in official competition at the Cannes Film Festival

The film's original score was composed
by FATIMA AL QADIRI

 

Selected for Official Competition, Mati Diop's long-awaited feature debut is a story about a soon-to-be-inaugurated futuristic tower looms over a suburb of Dakar, along the Atlantic coast.  Ada, 17, is in love with Souleiman, a young construction worker. But she has been promised to another man. One night, Souleiman and his co-workers leave the country by sea, in hope of a better future. Several days later, a fire ruins Ada’s wedding and a mysterious fever starts to spread. Little does Ada know that Souleiman has returned.

Mati Diop, niece of the late, great Senegalese cinema pioneer Djibril Diop Mambéty — director of African cinema classics “Touki Bouki” and “Hyènes” — makes her feature film directorial debut with “Atlantique,” which will world premiere at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival on 16 May. Diop is the daughter of Senegalese jazz musician Wasis Diop, but cinephiles will likely be more familiar with her filmmaker uncle.

"She is the first black woman with a film in the 72-year-old festival’s Competition section, and stands to be one of the biggest breakouts at Cannes this year." - Indiewire

"In her past solo and collaborative work, the Senegal-born, Kuwait-raised and Berlin-based artist has shown a great inquisitiveness about perceptions and diversity." - The Irish Times

About composer FATIMA AL QADIRI :
Fatima Al Qadiri is a Kuwaiti music producer and artist. She has released music as a solo artist on Hyperdub, Tri Angle, UNO NYC and Fade to Mind, and as a member of the group Future Brown on Warp. Al Qadiri is also a member of the Gulf-based collective GCC, whose work has been exhibited at MoMA PS1, Fridericianum, Berlin Bienniale and Sharjah Art Foundation. Her writing has appeared in Bidoun, Frieze and DIS.

About director MATI DIOP :
Trained in Le Fresnoy (National Studio of Contemporary Arts – a leading and very selective French artistic institution), Mati Diop directed four shorts and a medium-length film which received the « Martin E. Segal - Emerging Artist Award » of the Lincoln Center (USA) in 2016.
 
A THOUSAND SUNS (2013), BIG IN VIETNAM (2011), SNOW CANON (2010) and ATLANTIQUES (2009) were selected and awarded in a wide number of international festivals such as the Venice Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival, the International Film Festival Rotterdam, the Viennale, The Indie Lisboa International Film Festival, and the FID Marseille. They were also programmed in the MoMA and in the Moving Image Museum (USA). 
 
As an actress, Mati Diop played in HERMIA Y HELENA by director Matias Piñeiro (2015), FORT BUCHANAN by Benjamin Crotty (2014), SIMON KILLER by Antonio Campos (2012) and 35 SHOTS OF RHUM by Claire Denis (2008).

Atlantics:
Diop directed from a script she co-wrote with Olivier Demangel. The film was shot in Senegal in 2018, with local actors playing characters who speak Wolof, the dominant local language.

Judith Lou Lévy and Eve Robin are producers for Les Films du Bal, with Arte France Cinéma, Cinekap (Senegal) and Frakas Productions (Belgium) all co-producing. Canal+, TV5 Monde and Ciné+ pre-purchased rights to the film, with additional funding support from Senegal’s FOPICA fund, La Francophonie’s Image Fund, the Wallonia-Brussels Federation and Eurimages.