Film Forum

A great romance, a West African dreamscape, a tragic fable, a feminist paean. Young, fiery Banel loves her soft-hearted husband Adama with singular passion. She also hates to do chores with other village women, slings stones at small creatures, and fantasizes a liberated life of cattle-herding outside the village in the dunes. Adama is next in line for village chief but resists the responsibility. When a catastrophic drought hits, the curse weighs on his sense of duty, and the chasm between them drives Banel into a feverish, mystical chaos. Senegal’s official submission to the 2024 Oscars®, it was the only first feature in Cannes’s Official Competition in 2023.  

2023      87 MIN.     SENEGAL / FRANCE / MALI     KINO LORBER
IN PULAAR AND FRENCH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES    

Trailer

Reviews

“A striking debut that puts Sy on the map as a purveyor of deceptively gorgeous visions.”  
– Sophie Monks Kaufman, IndieWire

“A dreamlike debut…a lyrical, languid fable.”
– Jessica Kiang, Variety

“A promising debut for Sy, who combines an eye for arrestingly apocalyptic images…with skillful work with her non-professional cast…[including] a remarkable performance from [lead actress Khady] Mane, who conveys the mutinous, deluded anger in a young woman who would bend the world around her to her will if she could.”
– Wendy Ide, Screen Daily

“A lyrical love story…feels like nothing so much as a West African spin on the free-form reveries of Terrence Malick. Visually distinctive and drenched in color: a bright yellow shirt, rich orange fabrics, the vivid blue of a river even as it falls into shadow…succinct and evocative.”
– Steve Pond, The Wrap