'Atlantics' is a film that confusingly shifts genres. It starts as a social drama, when we meet Ada and Souleiman, a young couple in Sénégal. They arrange to meet in a bar one night, but on arrival Ada discovers Souleiman and his friends, frustrated at not being paid for a number of months for their work on a building site, have set sail in a small boat for Spain. This leads to several tedious scenes of Ada moping about, but she still has options: she is, after all, just days away from her wedding to the wealthy and flash Omar.
At this point the film shifts into a police procedural, as Omar's house catches fire and a young, impatient police officer becomes convinced Souleiman is the culprit. Then the film arrives at its final destination - that of supernatural thriller - when the detective and several of Ada's friends contract a mysterious illness.
The lead role of Ada is played by Mame Bineta Sane, but I can not help wondering if one of the young women playing her friends would have done a better job: perhaps it is an attempt to portray Ada's misery, but Sane delivers many of her lines with little apparent enthusiasm - and if the lead actress is not interested in the film, why should the viewer be? Actually the film is engrossing in terms of the mysterious illness and whether Ada and Souleiman will be reunited. And a film set in non-English speaking Africa is always going to be unusual to Western audiences. So it is worth seeing at least once.
At this point the film shifts into a police procedural, as Omar's house catches fire and a young, impatient police officer becomes convinced Souleiman is the culprit. Then the film arrives at its final destination - that of supernatural thriller - when the detective and several of Ada's friends contract a mysterious illness.
The lead role of Ada is played by Mame Bineta Sane, but I can not help wondering if one of the young women playing her friends would have done a better job: perhaps it is an attempt to portray Ada's misery, but Sane delivers many of her lines with little apparent enthusiasm - and if the lead actress is not interested in the film, why should the viewer be? Actually the film is engrossing in terms of the mysterious illness and whether Ada and Souleiman will be reunited. And a film set in non-English speaking Africa is always going to be unusual to Western audiences. So it is worth seeing at least once.