Atlantics Review (Film, 2019)
Content warning: sexism, abuse of women
Mati Diop makes quite a statement in her debut narrative feature Atlantics. She crafts an original paranormal drama with romantic elements unlike anything I’ve encountered before. She plays with reinventing the tropes of the literary Gothic in a way that celebrates marginalized people and otherizes those with money and power.
Ada is going to be married to a wealthy man her family chose for her in just a few days. However, she is in love with a far more common young man, a construction worker named Souleiman. Unfortunately, Souleiman is one of many young men in this ocean-side town in Senegal who has not received a paycheck in months for constructing a giant, state of the art tower most people could never afford to visit. Souleiman and his friends set themselves out to sea, hoping to reach the shores of France where they can be accepted as refugees and start new lives. Ada has no choice but to go through with her arranged marriage as the raft never makes landfall. Everyone in the village knows Souleiman is dead, yet the police are convinced Ada is secretly meeting with him to commit and cover up some heinous crimes.
Just to be clear: that’s 20 minutes of the movie. All of that is exposition for a far more complex and creative tale. Diop tackles class, religion, capitalism, gentrification, immigration, tradition, police corruption, sacrifice, and sexism in a film that never feels overly bloated or lost.
The inclusion of the paranormal element is literal text in the film presented as metaphor. This village has many sins to account for. Imagine the greed of not paying employees for months to construct your multi-million dollar tower you’re already earning a profit off of. Imagine turning your back on the young men in your village, keeping them trapped in low wage jobs to the point that their only chance at a better life is risking their safety on a raft. Imagine a society where women are so ill trusted that the police will cooperate with families to force young women to prove their virginity through medically invasive tests against their will. I will not spoil how the paranormal takes over the story, but setting the story in a world that actively believes in spirits and the afterlife pays off huge dividends in storytelling.
Diop is not the only person making her debut in this film. Most of the cast is new to film acting and give great performances. Mame Bineta Sane lives in the role of Ada, adding a beautiful, tortured, and downright haunted presence to her every moment onscreen. She doesn’t need lines to express her frustration with what society is forcing on her. Ibrahima Traore is similarly effective as Souleiman. He lights up onscreen, making it all too believable that a young woman like Ada would be willing to sacrifice everything set up for her to be with him. He sells a justifiable rage at a society that will never give him a fair chance.
While Diop is critical of the culture of status driven by the growing power of religion in Senegal, she does not vilify the people of the village for their religious beliefs. It is a delicate balance to strike and one that requires a sure hand behind the production. There are bad people in the village—the multimillionaire who won’t pay his workers, the police officer who is obsessed with proving Ada is committing crimes in the secret of night, among others—but they are not bad because of their beliefs. They are hypocritical, preaching the laws of the country and Islam while violating the social contract that allows those laws and traditions to take hold in a country.
If anything, Atlantics celebrates the people of Senegal and their rich history and culture. Ada’s wedding procession is a beautifully shot celebration that is revisited again and again as the police officer tries to prove his convictions of wrongdoing in the village. We see the other young women in the village argue why Ada should be happy with everything she will receive in her marriage from the perspective of women who dream of the same thing. Ada does to, but not with the man selected for her.
There are moments meant to be shocking and upsetting and Diop does not apologize for them. Ada is considered the property of her husband once they are married, to the point that only her husband, not her own birth family, is able to have her freed from police custody. Her attitude at the whole ordeal results in the forced virginity test, which is such a traumatic experience that it forever changes the course of her life.
When the Gothic elements do come in, they come in hard and unexpected ways. I don’t want to prescribe a traditional Western inspiration for the film, but this hit on all the same notes I love about Pre-Victorian Gothic literature. It is a film driven by emotion and the acceptance of more to the world than we can see. Like the Romantic Gothic, a scientific explanation is not required; just a rational one. Rational is relative and the logic of Atlantics is airtight for the universe of the story.
Atlantics is a journey. You don’t quite know where you’re going to go next, but it all makes sense by the end. The film is visually interesting with expressive lighting and clever camera angles that build suspense through beautiful misdirection. There’s no missing when the paranormal elements drop and it adds so much controlled tension and nuance to the story. There is no other contemporary film quite like Atlantics and that’s a wonderful thing.
Atlantics is currently streaming on Netflix.
