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Fresh from Cannes competition, Franco-Senegalese director Ramata-Toulaye Sy’s first longform work is a haunting fable of star-cross’d lovers set in a rural village.

Banel and Adama are blissfully in love. Their marriage comes after the death of Banel’s first husband – Adama’s brother, Yero – a union community elders initially saw as an act of honour. But suspicions about the couple’s all-consuming passion grow when Adama refuses to assume Yero’s role as chief and Banel scorns her domestic duties. When drought besets the region, villagers fear the disobedient lovers have incited a curse.

Scripted in the Pulaar language and featuring a local cast of non-professional actors – Khady Mane is particularly gripping in her starring turn – Banel & Adama shows Senegalese village life through a young woman’s eyes. Sy’s follow-up to the coming-of-age short Astel (MIFF 2022) is atmospheric and languid, its ethereal tone drawing comparisons with Terrence Malick (Voyage of Time, MIFF 2017), and was the only debut selected for the 2023 Cannes competition. With this lyrical tale of love and duty, the director refuses singular interpretations, conjuring a beguiling world of folklore, fate, madness and obsession.

“Stirring … With its balletic choreography of performance and statuesque visual approach, Sy’s film is a work of remarkable composition.” – Little White Lies

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Director Ramata-Toulaye Sy will be in attendance for the screening on Sunday 13 August.