'Atlantics': A Dizzying Elegy to the Modern Africa

A port town anywhere in the world is an interesting cross-section of many cultural lives inhabiting together. This complex vortex would be more historical again for a port town in an erstwhile colony nation. Vestiges of the oppressor who had come from the ocean along with traders, commodities, technology, myths, and cultures cross paths here to make life more than real. All these haunt people even decades after the historical loot and mystify everything around them. And some basic questions still baffle them. In this era of all marauding capitalism, are we really free? Is there something new above us? Or are we possessed by ghosts of the same history? Is everything part of a larger social structure where exploitation rules anything else?

In a normal film such a matter would be socially realistic. But could you blend this with supernatural story elements and romance to come up with a unique and original work devoid of all conventions of the so-called genres?

'Atlantics' (2019, Senegal) by Mati Diop achieves this rare feat. The first film by a black woman to feature in the competition section of Cannes, this flick is a strong political statement on a list of issues as stated above. It went on to win the Grand Prix of last year's esteemed festival and subsequently won hearts all around the globe. It was the feature film debut of Diop, an established actor, and niece of the great Senegalese auteur Djibril Diop Mambéty. The film is set in the port city of Dakar, the capital of Senegal. Seventeen-year-old Ada is in love with Souleiman, a construction worker denied wages for months. She is also engaged with a business mogul of the town by force. Souleiman, being sure that his salary won't be paid on time, sets sail to Spain in a boat with his friends. Ada complies with the marriage since everyone around the town knows the fate of Souleiman and his gang. On the night of the wedding, the sumptuous bed for the newlywed catches fire without any source. And it becomes a huge arson. The police start an investigation into the matter. Many among the partying crowd claim that they saw Souleiman except Ada. Meanwhile, Ada's girlfriends start having strange infections over their bodies from that night. The source of this pain is gradually revealed and that mystery takes grip of the story from then. Issa, a promising and intelligent officer, finds himself possessed of the same supernatural element. And he connects the dots between the construction workers' issue and the ongoing situation. Ada too eventually discovers the links between the widespread possessions and her lost love in the Atlantic. She gets the self-realization of her identity with this and matures into a sensible political being by the end.

A normal love story on the surface, a supernatural film by execution, Atlantics transcends all these genres tropes to build up a unique experience. The careful narrative choices start with the title itself. Atlantic ocean surrounds Dakar and has worked as a carrier of many things like:

1. Colonialists from outside like Arabs, French, and US-sponsored neoliberalism 2. Job prospects for people to set sail for foreign nations 3. Languages that became vestiges of colonialism 4. Danger and death 5. Bad omens from the underbelly

Hence the collective sufferings of Senegalese people are condensed around the title Atlantic's'. The great ocean brings back painful memories like the arrival of colonialism, slave trading, and loss of language and culture. The ubiquitous presence of the Atlantic Ocean throughout the film is thus pointing to this historical baggage.

The underlying humanism makes even the possessed people very normal to viewers' eyes. Possession plays a great role here. What are the people getting possessed by? Is it the grief of the loved people who failed to cross the sea? Are these the hopes and promises they left behind? The betrayals and cons they were forced to face? Or are these the outbursts of lost generations under centuries of oppression? Diop carefully weaves these questions around a bunch of women. She elaborated about it while talking to Carlos Aguilar:

'The film’s main principle has to do with possession, and at some point when I chose that the spirits were going to come back to possess the girls when I chose this principle instead of another principle, I thought it was also similar to how other cultures from abroad have possessed Senegal through language and culture...'

Senegal has a long history of colonial oppression from Arabs, then the French and now an increasingly pervading globalization. Diop frames this as possessing a civilization with its own identity. Dakar, a port town, serves as a metaphor for the notion of clashing cultures. The shift in the spoken languages is to be noted here. They use Wolof during informal conversations, French in official formalities, and Arabic during religious functions. This works as a pointer to the centuries-old pillage Senegalese people had to endure.

Quoting from the same interview :

Q: 'There's something incredibly interesting about language in "Atlantics," for the most part people speak Wolof, but for official matters, they speak French, and in religious context they use Arabic. This fascinating blend of cultures, of course, a vestige of colonialism as well, is very evident through the languages spoken.

Ans. That’s how these three cultures meet there. I was very much curious and interested in capturing that through the language and through some situations in which you really experience the different layers of influences from abroad. First, there was the arrival of Arab-Muslim influences, which took place many centuries ago. This is not too far removed from the French colonization period, which we talk about as something very ancient, but it's not that ancient actually."

The mythical Djinn from Muslim scriptures rolls out as a perfect carrier for Diop here. And it is blended with the modern questions of capitalism. Souleiman and his friends are denied wages by an extravagant businessman. They set sail for the ocean in search of new prospects. And they cannot leave their love, hopes, and miseries back at home even after bad luck hits. Thus they become Djinns to be back to their land and to question the injustice they faced.

This can be referred to as the Senegalese Spring which erupted in 2012. It was when Senegalese youth came on to the streets after long years of oppression and many tragic attempts at migration. They wanted to avenge the deaths of those lost generations in the great ocean. Diop refers to Senegalese spring this way:

'I've done several short films and a medium length, but the feature was really evolving in my mind for a long time, ten years. During that time, Senegalese society changed. One very crucial moment was the Senegalese Spring, which arrived a couple of months after the Arab Spring in 2012, where after 10 years of a very dark period where a lot of young people were escaping the country, where a lot of them died in the ocean, suddenly in 2012, there was a big rupture, with riots, and with a really offensive position of the part of the people against the state. It was quite surprising to see that happen after such a depressive moment.'

She had then decided to dedicate her first feature to lost generations. And also fixed that it would be told from the perspective of a living person left-back in Senegal, a woman. She chose to recreate the political moment in order to be sensitive to both demographics. And she did it by employing supernatural elements.

Kuwaiti musician Fatima Al Qadiri's score makes the film a captivating experience. Drawing heavily from traditional music and modern electro, the soundtrack works in tandem with the mysticism of the film. You get pulled to the characters with the music accompanying them. The low-key mixture of many styles gives a complex texture to everyone's psychology. It is haunting and mysterious like every other dimension of the maze here.

Atlantics, hence, is a powerful political film folded with supernatural and romantic undertones. And what makes it unique and original is the daring political clarity of the filmmaker. Mati Diop carefully crafts a Rubik with immense possibilities like the great eponymous ocean. History meets romance with ghosts and everything still feels very normal to you. Nothing is eerie, scary, or overtly chest-thumping. But everyone leaves you emotional and thoughtful of the world order. And that shows the prowess of a great artist at work.

More power to you Ms Diop, like Souleiman, whispers to Ada at the end,

'I felt your weeping dragging me to shore... '

References: A Language Possessed and Reconquered: Mati Diop on Atlantics by Carlos Aguilar: https://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/a-language-possessed-and-reconquered-mati-diop-on-atlantics Interview: Mati Diop by Eric Hynes: https://www.filmcomment.com/blog/cannes-interview-mati-diop/ The Haunting Senegalese Love Story That Stunned Cannes, Hannah Giorgis: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theatlantic.com/amp/article/601942/