French Film Festival

French Film Festival
Friday, Feb 7, 2025 at 7:00pm
Rubenstein Arts Center Film Theater
2020 Campus Drive

Banel and Adama French Film Festival

Banel & Adama
(Ramata-Toulaye Sy, 2023, 87 min, France/Senegal, Mali, Pulaar w/English subtitles, DCP)  

Introduced by Prof. Felwine Sarr (Romance Studies)

In a rural village in Senegal, Banel (Khady Mane) is happily married to Adama (Mamadou Diallo), the younger brother of her deceased first husband. Though their love is passionate, the relationship is tested by pressures from the community, which expects Banel to assume traditionally feminine domestic responsibilities, while her husband is meant to inherit the role of village chief from his late brother. Both young adults resist the mandate to fill these assigned duties, incurring disapproval from those around them—and possibly triggering supernatural repercussions. In her Palme d’Or nominated feature debut, Senegalese-French writer-director Ramata-Toulaye Sy conjures lyrical imagery reminiscent of Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven, placing two memorable young lovers against a landscape as beautiful as it is inscrutable.

“A dreamlike debut…a lyrical, languid fable.” – Jessica Kiang, Variety

“A promising debut for Sy, who combines an eye for arrestingly apocalyptic images…with skillful work with her non-professional cast…[including] a remarkable performance from [lead actress Khady] Mane, who conveys the mutinous, deluded anger in a young woman who would bend the world around her to her will if she could.” – Wendy Ide, Screen Daily