Khady Mane, Mamadou Diallo, Binta Racine Sy, Moussa Sow
Screened in Competition at Cannes this year, the gorgeous, lyrical Banel & Adama is the first feature from Ramata-Toulaye Sy, brilliantly performed by a non-professional cast and shot on location in northern Senegal in 2022.
Banel (Khady Mane) and Adama (Mamadou Diallo) are fiercely in love. Seeking a home of their own together, they have decided to live apart from their families, and that Adama won’t accept his blood duty as future chief. When Adama informs the local council of his intention, the whole community is disrupted. The rain that’s supposed to come to their parched village doesn’t, and their actions are blamed. Where they live, it seems, there is no room for passion.
A love story threaded through with ideas about the emotional and practical impacts of the weather and the harms afforded by climate change, as well as a woman’s place in the community, Banel & Adama is an intimate and strikingly beautiful fable, exquisitely shot by DP Amine Berrada.