The Senegalese French director Mati Diop recently gained recognition for her short film ‘Atlantiques’. She now makes her feature directorial debut with the African movie ‘Atlantics’ at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. The movie screened in the competition segment of the festival, Palme d’Or on May 16. This earned Mati Diop a spot in the records as the first female filmmaker of African descent to compete in that segment.
‘Atlantics’ is also one of the few movies representing Africa at the festival this year. One Nigerian movie ‘2 Weeks in Lagos’ by Canadian based Nigerian director Kathryn Fasegha screens on 17 May. Arab films by North African filmmakers including Abou Leila, Papicha, Adam and Tlamess are also premiering in various sections of Cannes this year.
‘Atlantics’ is made in parallel to Mati Diop’s ‘Atlantiques’. The championing short film focuses on the life-threatening boat trip taken by Senegalese men in search of a better life in Europe. The African movie ‘Atlantics’ is a full-length version of ‘Atlantiques’ and told from the women’s perspective. It centers around Ada, a young woman from Dakar whose lover suddenly disappears. This halts her bustling lifestyle, as she imagines he has attempted to cross the Atlantic from Senegal to Europe.
Before ‘Atlantics’, Mati Diop has done a little bit of acting and featured in movies like ‘Simon Killer’.
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