Streaming Now: ‘Atlantics’

From its opening moments, “Atlantics” appears to be a simple film, but this is a deception. A young woman, Ada (Mame Bineta Sane), and a young man, Souleiman (Ibrahima Traoré), glimpse each other between the passing cars of a freight train in Dakar, Senegal. They meet and embrace; they speak of a relationship.

But, because his construction company will not pay back wages, Souleiman and some other young guys from the neighborhood leave for Europe on pirogue and do not make it to their destination. We don’t see what happens at sea but we glimpse haunting images of the empty rooms the men left behind.

This is director Mati Diop’s debut feature - she has a tremendous turn as an actress in Claire Denis “35 Shots of Rum” and clearly picked up a few things from a master filmmaker. There is an accumulated potency in the quiet moments of Ada navigating the city alone as, one-by-one, many of her friends are wracked with fever. Soon these women take to sleepwalking - it seems they are possessed with the spirits of the drowned men. In addition to the uncanny nighttime sights, there is a tremendous recurring motif of static shots of the Atlantic Ocean. We see it dark and light, rough and still, always contrasting the characters’ activities against the vast indifference of the sea.

The cast - comprised of non-actors Diop scouted herself - is riveting. She has Ada close the film by making an indelible statement about her identity, just as Diop has made a stellar opening declaration as a director.