There are steps that are more moving than others, even more sincere. Ramata-Toulaye Sy, the youngest director in competition, did not hide her tears of joy. Surrounded by her equally moved team, the young filmmaker received a long standing ovation from the public. His first feature film, Banel and Adama is entirely in Fulani.
In a village in northern Senegal, Banel lives a powerful love story with her husband Adama. She loves like “only a woman knows how to love” : unconditionally, fully. No room for doubt, compromise. Banel’s love is a fortress in a village cut off from the outside world. Very quickly, such love is experienced as aggression. “The destiny of a young woman is to give male descendants to her husband”, reminds him of his mother-in-law. Not for Banel, for whom Adama is more than enough.
Love in times of scarcity
In the village, time is short. Drought fills the cemetery. The cows are dying of thirst. Humans and animals scrutinize a pitiless sky, desperately deaf to lamentations and supplications. A culprit, there must necessarily be a culprit to explain this absence of rain. Because if the village is emptying of its able-bodied inhabitants, if death takes away the most fragile, it is not without reason. “Everything is linked, the drought, your love for Adama, your desire to live in a house with him, alone”, thinks he knows his twin brother Racine, who urges him to change and settle down. But Banel refuses to fall into line, she dismisses the idea of diluting her individuality in the group.
Ramata-Toulaye Sy, one of the seven female filmmakers in competition, questions patriarchy and the place of the individual in a society that is experienced as a united body that reacts to external elements by sticking together. Banel, magnificently interpreted by Khady Mane, does not doubt his love. Banel is afraid that Adama wavers on his certainties. Banel is afraid of the cowardice of men. Banel is not afraid of chaos, she knows it to be fruitful.
The young filmmaker has a keen sense of aesthetics, the image is very neat. Banel and Adama a luminous film.
The sheet
Achievement : Ramata-Toulaye Sy
Year of production : 2023
Country : France, Senegal, Mali
Duration : 87 minutes
Distribution : Khady Mane, Mamadou Diallo and Binta Racine Sy
Summary: Banel and Adama love each other. They live in a remote village in northern Senegal. Of the world, they only know that, outside, nothing exists. But the absolute love that unites them will come up against the conventions of the community. Because where they live, there is no place for passions, and even less for chaos.
