![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNmRhODI4MmEtNjEzOC00OWNlLWFjMzktY2YwODU4YTA0ZDk4XkEyXkFqcGc@._V1_QL75_UX500_CR0,0,500,281_.jpg)
A directorial debut programmed into the main Cannes competition is typically viewed with suspicion, if not overlooked altogether. Very rare is that lightning-in-a-bottle moment like the arrival of Son of Saul some years back. Typically, the only conversation these debuts generate is the critical debate as to why they’ve been elevated to the top of the pile when there are far more striking debuts buried deeper within the festival. This often means that accomplished films are overlooked and underappreciated by those on the ground, who may be subconsciously comparing a striking feature to the work of more established names it’s competing against for the Palme d’Or, approaching each debut with a “show me” attitude it wouldn’t be treated with if selected for placement in, say, Un Certain Regard.
Banel & Adama, the feature debut of Senegalese filmmaker Ramata-Toulaye Sy, is an assured work that has been plagued...
Banel & Adama, the feature debut of Senegalese filmmaker Ramata-Toulaye Sy, is an assured work that has been plagued...
- 6/4/2024
- by Alistair Ryder
- The Film Stage
![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTVhNmQxMjAtOWIxMy00ZWMwLThlZmMtMjM3NDI1ZjUyYmVmXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE0MzQwMjgz._V1_QL75_UY281_CR10,0,500,281_.jpg)
On the mean streets of Casablanca dartingly navigated in “Hounds,” all life is shown to be casually disposable; an actual human body, however, is another matter. Taking place over one sleepless night of mounting misfortune in the Moroccan metropolis, writer-director Kamal Lazraq’s first feature is a trim, unsparing crime tale that pits social desperation against a nagging spiritual conscience. Its gig-economy gangsters may follow almost any grisly orders for a quick buck, but are equally bound to Muslim creeds and customs, glumly shrugging off any disparity between these two authorities.
Following an impoverished father-son duo as an ostensibly rote criminal errand goes bloodily awry, the film is briskly told and humidly atmospheric, though a little tonal variation wouldn’t have gone amiss amid an overriding air of hardscrabble, stomach-knotted discomfort. As its central crisis deepens and darkens, Lazraq’s script keeps teasing a gear-shift into mordant farce to which it never quite commits,...
Following an impoverished father-son duo as an ostensibly rote criminal errand goes bloodily awry, the film is briskly told and humidly atmospheric, though a little tonal variation wouldn’t have gone amiss amid an overriding air of hardscrabble, stomach-knotted discomfort. As its central crisis deepens and darkens, Lazraq’s script keeps teasing a gear-shift into mordant farce to which it never quite commits,...
- 5/23/2023
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZTg5YjZlOTMtNDU3Zi00MjcwLWFhZjMtYzA2OWQzMmEwNGExXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE0MzQwMjgz._V1_QL75_UX500_CR0,0,500,281_.jpg)
As IndieWire has published its great camera survey regarding Cannes Film Festival 2023, we analyzed the data to reveal that the Arri Alexa Mini is still the king of kings. This is the 4th year in a row that this camera dominates the Cannes list. Also, there’s a respectful presence of good and old film cameras. Explore the list below.
Cannes Film Festival 2023 – Camera Manufacturers Chart The cinematography of the leading film festivals
Just saying — and without noticing, we wrote a title very similar to last year’s Cannes 2022 (“The Cameras Behind Cannes 2022: Alexa Mini (Still) Dominates”). This shows that filmmakers love the Arri Mini so much…but we’ll elaborate on this later. We have been waiting for IndieWire to complete its survey regarding the cameras that shot Cannes 2023’s feature films. Each year, IndieWire sends a questionnaire to main festivals’ filmmakers (directors and cinematographers) in order to...
Cannes Film Festival 2023 – Camera Manufacturers Chart The cinematography of the leading film festivals
Just saying — and without noticing, we wrote a title very similar to last year’s Cannes 2022 (“The Cameras Behind Cannes 2022: Alexa Mini (Still) Dominates”). This shows that filmmakers love the Arri Mini so much…but we’ll elaborate on this later. We have been waiting for IndieWire to complete its survey regarding the cameras that shot Cannes 2023’s feature films. Each year, IndieWire sends a questionnaire to main festivals’ filmmakers (directors and cinematographers) in order to...
- 5/22/2023
- by Yossy Mendelovich
- YMCinema
![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTU3YTEzNmEtZGViNC00M2M1LThlNzUtYzEwMTRhOWJkMTQ0XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE0MzQwMjgz._V1_QL75_UX500_CR0,0,500,281_.jpg)
There is a sultry elusiveness to Ramata-Toulaye Sy’s debut feature that makes it hard to articulate its subject or even its genre. Is this a riff on “Romeo & Juliet”, filtered through Senegalese village life? Or is it a sci-fi fable, with the mirage-like heat reflecting a slow descent into personal madness a la Lars von Trier’s “Melancholia”? “Banel & Adama” is a striking debut that puts Sy on the map as a purveyor of deceptively gorgeous visions that show flimsy desires at the mercy of the social, and literal, weather. A drought can suck dry the fiercest emotional bonds, so what use is romantic love when people are dying of heat?
We hear their names first, as intimate whispers repeat, “Banel and Adama,” and Dp Amine Berrada films dancing sunbeams that refract into mysterious shapes. We then see a piece of paper with their names written down together,...
We hear their names first, as intimate whispers repeat, “Banel and Adama,” and Dp Amine Berrada films dancing sunbeams that refract into mysterious shapes. We then see a piece of paper with their names written down together,...
- 5/21/2023
- by Sophie Monks Kaufman
- Indiewire
![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNDQyNTdhMjctMjNhMS00MDQyLTgzMzktZGZlYWY5MzZhZGIwXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE0MzQwMjgz._V1_QL75_UX500_CR0,0,500,281_.jpg)
Senegalese and French director Ramata-Toulaye Sy is only the second Black woman to make it into Competition in Cannes. Her debut feature, Banel & Adama, which had its debut Saturday, follows in the footsteps of Mati Diop’s 2019 Atlantics.
Sy draws on her roots in the Fulani, or Peul, culture of the Futa region in northern Senegal for her magic-realist film about a young couple whose passion brings chaos to their remote rural community. “The people of Futa have the reputation of being very dignified and sticking to their community,” says Sy, who was born and grew up in France. “I was raised in the Fulani tradition at home and French culture outside.”
Inspiration for Banel & Adama came from a desire to create a tragic African heroine on par with Pierre Corneille’s Médée or Jean Racine’s Phèdre. “We don’t really have these mythical, tragic characters, or we do,...
Sy draws on her roots in the Fulani, or Peul, culture of the Futa region in northern Senegal for her magic-realist film about a young couple whose passion brings chaos to their remote rural community. “The people of Futa have the reputation of being very dignified and sticking to their community,” says Sy, who was born and grew up in France. “I was raised in the Fulani tradition at home and French culture outside.”
Inspiration for Banel & Adama came from a desire to create a tragic African heroine on par with Pierre Corneille’s Médée or Jean Racine’s Phèdre. “We don’t really have these mythical, tragic characters, or we do,...
- 5/20/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZDc5ZDRmODItMTRiYS00OTMxLWIyZWEtZDI1YjI1MmYyYjliXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE0MzQwMjgz._V1_QL75_UX500_CR0,10,500,281_.jpg)
The interlinked names of the lovers have an unusual power in Ramata-Toulaye Sy’s haunting, halting “Banel & Adama.” They play over and over as a whispery lullaby on the soundtrack. They cover the sheets of paper on which Banel (Khady Mane) compulsively writes, like a schoolgirl practicing cursive on the name of her crush. There’s an innocence to it at the beginning, as though Banel, whose strange mind we mostly occupy, is simply delighting in the sound and shape of their togetherness. But that’s when “Banel & Adama” is a love story, and before it descends, a little too hesitantly but with a subtly seductive power nonetheless, into drought and madness and maybe, cosmic retribution. The sun-and-superstition-soaked tale of an African girl contending with fate and folk tradition has some precedent in Rungano Nyoni’s excellent “I Am Not a Witch.” But here, as the bright imagery...
- 5/20/2023
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNDVmNWQ5MGYtYjgwZC00NjZjLWFhYzktYzIwNWJjZTE2NDFjXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE0MzQwMjgz._V1_QL75_UY281_CR0,0,500,281_.jpg)
Sales banner Best Friend Forever has unveiled the teaser for Ramata Toulaye-Sy’s buzzed-about Senegalese drama “Banel & Adama,” which is the sole feature debut slated for the competition at the Cannes Film Festival.
The lushly lensed female emancipation drama, set to bow on May 20, takes place in a remote village of Northern Senegal where Banel and Adama are fiercely in love. Longing for a home of their own, they have decided to live apart from their families. When Adama refuses his blood duty as future chief and informs the village council of his intentions, the whole community is disrupted and chaos ensues.
The film was shot in Pulaar language with a cast of local non-professional actors, including Khady Mane, Mamadou Diallo, Binta Racine Sy and Moussa Sow.
Toulaye-Sy said she wanted the film to tell a tragic love story that would be relatable to everyone. The helmer, who studied...
The lushly lensed female emancipation drama, set to bow on May 20, takes place in a remote village of Northern Senegal where Banel and Adama are fiercely in love. Longing for a home of their own, they have decided to live apart from their families. When Adama refuses his blood duty as future chief and informs the village council of his intentions, the whole community is disrupted and chaos ensues.
The film was shot in Pulaar language with a cast of local non-professional actors, including Khady Mane, Mamadou Diallo, Binta Racine Sy and Moussa Sow.
Toulaye-Sy said she wanted the film to tell a tragic love story that would be relatable to everyone. The helmer, who studied...
- 5/11/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYmExMDU1NzYtZDI2ZC00NTlkLTg1NzItYmY4ZDkzN2VjMjdlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE0MzQwMjgz._V1_QL75_UX500_CR0,20,500,281_.jpg)
Best Friend Forever has boarded Ramata-Toulaye Sy’s debut feature “Banel & Adama,” a lushly lensed Senegalese female emancipation drama. Now in post, the movie is expected to have its world premiere later this year.
‘Banel & Adama’ is set a remote village of Northern Senegal where Banel and Adama are fiercely in love. Longing for a home of their own, they have decided to live apart from their families. When Adama refuses his blood duty as future chief and informs the village council of his intentions, the whole community is disrupted and chaos ensues.
Sy studied at France’s prestigious film school La Femis and previously directed the short film “Astel” which played at Toronto, New Directors/New Films and Clermont, where it won the Special Jury award, among 80 festivals to date. Ramata, meanwhile, previously co-wrote “Our Lady of the Nil” which played at Toronto, and “Sibel” which played at Locarno and Toronto.
‘Banel & Adama’ is set a remote village of Northern Senegal where Banel and Adama are fiercely in love. Longing for a home of their own, they have decided to live apart from their families. When Adama refuses his blood duty as future chief and informs the village council of his intentions, the whole community is disrupted and chaos ensues.
Sy studied at France’s prestigious film school La Femis and previously directed the short film “Astel” which played at Toronto, New Directors/New Films and Clermont, where it won the Special Jury award, among 80 festivals to date. Ramata, meanwhile, previously co-wrote “Our Lady of the Nil” which played at Toronto, and “Sibel” which played at Locarno and Toronto.
- 2/17/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BOTczYWVlZDktMDk3NS00OTQ3LTlkNmItZTI5YTVkZmJiZGRkXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE0MzQwMjgz._V1_QL75_UX500_CR0,0,500,281_.jpg)
“Did you think you were making a French independent film?” rails literary agent Vincent (Mikaël Chirinian) in French independent film “The World After Us.” He’s angry with his callow young client, Labidi (Aurélien Gabrielli), because Labidi has abruptly changed tack on a novel that’s already been optioned, and has also changed its title to, inevitably, “The World After Us.” Louda Ben Salah-Cazanas’ directorial debut is sensitively made, well observed and beautifully performed, but as this rather desultory stab at reflexivity suggests, it doesn’t have many surprises in store.
Where it really works is as a character portrait of the young aspiring author, to great measure aided by Gabrielli’s soulful, faintly Charles Aznavour vibe and tamped-down, off-kilter charm. Labidi, whose doting and delightful working-class Muslim parents (Saadia Bentaïeb and Jacques Nolot) run a small café in Lyon, lives in Paris. Actually, he basically squats there, sleeping on...
Where it really works is as a character portrait of the young aspiring author, to great measure aided by Gabrielli’s soulful, faintly Charles Aznavour vibe and tamped-down, off-kilter charm. Labidi, whose doting and delightful working-class Muslim parents (Saadia Bentaïeb and Jacques Nolot) run a small café in Lyon, lives in Paris. Actually, he basically squats there, sleeping on...
- 3/18/2021
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
![The Unknown Saint (2019)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BY2QwOTM2MWEtODAwNS00MmE1LWE1MDctMGMzM2NkZTQzZTQ0XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNjgzMjQ0MTA@._V1_QL75_UY207_CR8,0,140,207_.jpg)
![The Unknown Saint (2019)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BY2QwOTM2MWEtODAwNS00MmE1LWE1MDctMGMzM2NkZTQzZTQ0XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNjgzMjQ0MTA@._V1_QL75_UY207_CR8,0,140,207_.jpg)
Beautifully shot and ideally cast, debuting Moroccan writer-director Alaa Eddine Aliem’s “The Unknown Saint” is a droll, entertaining, absurdist fable about spirituality and greed that signals an important new talent. The events unfold near a derelict desert village, where, in a pre-title prologue, a thief buries a bag of loot on top of a hill, disguising the spot as a grave. Years later, when he returns to retrieve his booty, he is astonished and frustrated to find that a mausoleum honoring an “unknown saint” credited with performing healing miracles now covers the site. Moreover, a new village has sprung up nearby to service the pilgrims that the shrine attracts. Aliem manages to reap much fresh humor from this situation and a spritely cast of eccentric characters.
The story of the stymied thief (Younes Bouab) and his former accomplice, the sarcastically-styled Ahmed the Brain, plays out in parallel to, and overlaps with,...
The story of the stymied thief (Younes Bouab) and his former accomplice, the sarcastically-styled Ahmed the Brain, plays out in parallel to, and overlaps with,...
- 5/15/2019
- by Alissa Simon
- Variety Film + TV
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.