Notes on…

Atlantics(2019)

Dir. Directed by Mati Diop

If you liked this, make sure you check out Touki Bouki (1973).

The premiere of Atlantique at Cannes marked the first time that a film by a Black women screened in competition in the festival’s 72 years

Anonymous (Another Gaze)


Atlantics depicts zombification as a form of possession conferring not mindlessness but agency—an inversion that may be Diop’s cleverest invention. If there’s something uneasy about the suggestion that Ada and her female friends are only able to stand up to their community’s corrupt patriarchy via some ephemeral injection of masculinity, there’s also a potent, implied sense of class solidarity that crosses gender lines.

Adam Nayman (The Ringer)

Arranged to marry a rich man, young Ada is crushed when her true love goes missing at sea during a migration attempt — until a miracle reunites them.