Atlantics

In this neocolonialist zombie folktale, Ada (Sane) sacrifices her passion for Souleiman (Traore), a handsome construction worker broken by wage theft, in exchange for security with a man she neither loves nor desires. After Souleiman and his fellow laborers are lost to the Atlantic during a desperate attempt to seek work in Europe, their spectral forms appear to the abandoned girls of Dakar, who develop a sweating sickness, burning through the city, possessed. Mati Diop’s debut feature and Cannes Grand Prix winner is a ghost tale soaked in longing and rage, moving fluidly between romance, police procedural, supernatural horror, and tender coming-of-age story. Buoyed by Fatima Al Qadiri’s haunting score, Atlantics is at once a delirious fever dream and a sharp indictment of economic exploitation.