Banel & Adama

2023 [FULAH]

Drama

1
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Certified Fresh 95% · 41 reviews
IMDb Rating 6.3/10 10 799 799

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Plot summary

Chaos ensues shortly after a young man in a remote village in northern Senegal refuses to accept his role as the new village chief.

Director

Ramata-Toulaye Sy Photo
Ramata-Toulaye Sy

Top cast

Nima Ba Photo
Nima Ba as Djibril
Amadou Hady Sall Photo
Amadou Hady Sall as Uncle #1
Chérif Diallo Photo
Chérif Diallo as Uncle #2
Amadou Ndiaye Photo
Amadou Ndiaye as Malik
720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
795.4 MB
1194*720
Fulah 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  fr  
24 fps
1 hr 26 min
Seeds 1
1.6 GB
1792*1080
Fulah 5.1
NR
Subtitles us  fr  
24 fps
1 hr 26 min
Seeds 5

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by GiraffeDoor 7 / 10

As pretty as it is sombre.

One of those movies, the watching of which, totally makes up for the fact you've seen Hotel Transylvania 2 three times.Aloof, melancholic and lyrically visualized snapshot of village life and a woman trapped between holding onto the man she loves and resisting tradition.Simple and very direct. There is not much dynamism in this narrative but that only puts more weight in the sense of indolence as an individual who has had very little opportunity in life asks for so little and doesn't really even get that.Banel is not afraid to radiate visible contempt for the world around her and soon you do as well.
Reviewed by ricardojorgeramalho 7 / 10

The Impossible Love

Banel & Adama seems to be a personal project by the French screenwriter and director of Senegalese origin, Ramata-Toulaye Sy. This was her first feature film, in which she courageously takes on the dual role of writing and directing, after having directed a short film, Astel, in 2021, and having written two scripts for others, Sibel in 2018, for television, and Notre Dame du Nil, an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Scholastique Mukasonga, made in partnership with Atiq Rahimi, the film's director, in 2019.Banel & Adama is far from being an ordinary film. Refined in its script, cinematography, and settings, it seems more like a poem to the African woman, incapable of loving and being loved, permanently buried in a struggle for survival that involves her, her partner, and all the members of the community.A beautiful film, with great sensitivity that, deep down, seems to convey a universal reality. How many of us have not been forced to put survival or career before love? And how many do not look back nostalgically at the opportunities lost along the way?You don't have to live in the scorching Senegalese desert to share the anxieties and frustrations of the young Banel & Adama.
Reviewed by BrentReid 1 / 10

Beware: Much actual animal cruelty - this film should come with a trigger warning

Banel & Adama could be summed up as a stylised version of Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart but set in a drought-stricken Senegalese village and with added cultural complications. It's very well-made, with real visual flair and a painterly eye; among the many stylistic touches, look out for the near-obligatory dolly zoom. Initially we sympathise with the main protagonist but her love story and character soon reveal themselves to be much darker than they appear. And there's the rub: there is a lot of actual cruelty and death inflicted on various animals, most of it by her as an outlet for her conflicted mental state, and I soon found myself losing all sympathy and willing the film to end. But it only gets worse.In several long interviews posted on YouTube, the director talks about her wish for the film to be seen and appreciated internationally, to present a non-stereotyped view of her home country, different to that which most Westerners see in the news. But the abundant, wanton animal killings, which could easily have been faked or implied rather than seen, is an egregiously retrogressive choice and I don't understand why the film's many plaudits and distributors completely fail to mention it, especially in this supposedly more enlightened day and age. I can only ascribe it to a form of inverse racism, causing it to be excepted from the usual consensus that animal suffering in the name of so-called art is wrong and utterly indefensible.Overall, despite the film's many excellent technical and storytelling qualities, it was a gruelling watch and by the end I hated myself for having stayed put and not walking out at the first sign of where it was headed.
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