‘Banel & Adama’ Review: Ramata-Toulaye Sy’s Debut Film Is Striking And Sophisticated – Cannes Film Festival
deadline.com“You cannot go against your destiny,” 18-year-old Banel is warned in Banel & Adama (Banel e Adama), a visually striking and deceptively heavy debut from French-Senegalese director Ramata-Toulaye Sy, only the second Black woman to make it into the Cannes Competition since Mati Diop’s Atlantics in 2019.
At first sight, Sy’s film seems a bit of an outlier in a lineup sprinkled with veterans, and the extra scrutiny that comes with a Competition slot may well work against it.
But it’s entirely possible that it might strike a chord with the jury, notably Rungano Nyoni, whose debut I Am Not a Witch took a similarly subversive and sophisticated approach to themes of African tradition and folklore.
Banel, played by the revelatory Khady Mane, is a romantic, and when we meet her she is hopelessly in love with Adama (Mamadou Diallo), her childhood sweetheart.
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