Atlantics, written by Mati Diop and Olivier Demangel, directed by the former - Nine out of 10

Atlantics, written by Mati Diop and Olivier Demangel, directed by the former

Nine out of 10

Having won the 2019 Cannes Film Festival – maybe the last before next year, seeing as we are all corralled by the virus – well, many stupid, reckless, Trump voters seem to think this is a hoax, just as instructed by their primitive cult leader, and if we are cynical, we could say more power to you, go ahead and drink the hoax, mingle and express your intellectual prowess – to stay at home – Atlantics is clearly one of the best films of the past months, beaten for the most relevant of all cinematic trophies, The Palme d’Or, only by the glorious Parasite - http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/08/parasite-written-by-jin-won-han-and.html - discovered after all at the aforementioned cinematic celebration…

The merits of this motion picture are many, it is complex, deals with many themes, from the startling, appalling poverty that we see on the streets, in the slums of Dakar, and the contrast with the wealth of the corrupt constructor that is not yet satisfied with the fortune accumulated – there is after all in psychology a phenomenon called Hedonic Adaptation, epitomized by the vile rich man here and the likes of Trump elsewhere, which purports that we  Adapt to material things, be they expensive homes, cars, jewels and we need to accumulate ever more because of diminishing and perhaps extinguishing returns…that is why it is better to spend on experiences (say on a petri dish cruise like Crown Princess) and better still, act like the Dalai Lama, who has entered one supermarket – before Covid 19 will have emptied the shelves – and said ‘Wow, so many things I do not need’…he had all he needed in his brilliant mind.

The workers that the villain uses to erect a huge tower – which is so preposterous when surrounded by shacks and slums – are not paid for months and rebel against this injustice, without success though, for we would later hear a police commissioner, or anyway some superior officer there, saying that this rich man had helped them and they need to protect his peace and see that those who protest there stop doing it, and they will be forced to resort to other, Supernatural means in what is a shocking twist in the movie…

Ada aka the very talented Mame Bineta Sane is the main character of this feature, and she is living through a drama, as she is in love with Souleiman, but she has been promised in this Muslim community to another, rather rich man, who seems to be very inadequate, chauvinistic, medieval and rebarbative in his attitude towards the girl – at one point he would reject her, saying that there are so many that desire to be with him and indeed, even her own family insists that she must be nice to him, even once they are married, because otherwise he would get a second, maybe even a fourth wife

Depending on what interpretation they select of the Koran, some of the men of this faith take some extreme views, that we see in Saudi Arabia – with all their new, ‘generous’ acceptance of women drivers – and in places where they have ‘honor’ killings, wherein a younger member of the family takes the life of the woman, if she has missed on one of the five rules – if she left the home to live somewhere else, even thinks of abandoning her faith and other such primeval beliefs that imperil the lives of women who live in families with such monsters…

Souleiman and others decide to take to the ocean and try to reach Spain and make a new life there, but their boat would be found capsized and they all die drowned, as so many hundreds of thousands have and will, in an effort to reach the shores of an Europe that does not want them – mostly – and it is strange to find that he is still the prime suspect in an arson attack that sets the nuptial bed, on which Ada would have to consummate her marital vows, on fire and the police is investigating the case…

Seeing as they find of the relationship, affection or perhaps love between Souleiman and Ada, the suspicion is targeted on the man and the girl is accused of being an accomplice, pressed later by the family of the groom to take a virginity test – she is untouched – in a humiliating, traumatic push against the girl who loves another and in fact would try to run from the arrogant, rather loathsome, self-important, almost Trump like man who looks at Ada as if she would be a trophy – Ivana and the others come to mind – and a possession…

The climax is reached when a group of women show at the house of the wealthy, vile constructor and ask for the unpaid wages, some 42 million, and we see that there is something strange about their appearance, their eyes look bizarre and everything is so outlandish as to make this viewer think that maybe they have some contact lenses to change appearance and terrify their enemy into submission…the explanation is different though…

This is what would be called voodoo perhaps, on other coordinates, for these are the spirit of the dead, the drowned men who tried to escape their destitution, the unfairness of working without pay and having the corrupt institutions, police and the others, do nothing for them, but on the contrary, protect the vicious rich monster, have returned, took possession temporarily of the bodies of these women and came to haunt the scoundrel…

Now the police is acting, for the general inspector or whatever he is wants the patrol to stop these ‘persons’ from returning – when his subordinate is asking about the unpaid wages as reason for this intrusion, the chief says something like ‘never mind about that, this man has helped the force and see that they do not bother him again…’

Only they do and it becomes clear that they have this outlandish power, given that they come from another world and this Hannibal Lecter that makes people die, without eating them though, may be forced to listen to the demands of the ‘undead’, spirits of the dead or however you want to call them and there are other twists in the plot, wherein the one that is in charge of the arson case and follows in the footsteps of Ada, sending her to jail to make her talk about her role, the whereabouts of her lover has a very strange evolution himself, though he is trying to stay handcuffed in order to stop wondering as another being or ghost…