08/01/2018 - Produced by Les Films de Bal and co-produced by Belgium and Senegal, Mati Diop’s feature debut will be sold abroad by MK2

Having risen to fame as an actress in 35 Shots of Rum [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Claire Denis and made a huge splash as a director with her short films Atlantiques (winner of the Tiger at Rotterdam in 2010), Snow Canon (unveiled at Venice in 2011, on the Orizzonti programme) and Big in Vietnam (in competition at Rotterdam in 2012), as well as with her medium-length documentary A Thousand Suns (victorious at Montreal and at FID Marseille in 2013; also presented out of competition at Rotterdam in 2014), Mati Diop is due to kick off the shoot for her feature debut, Atlantique [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mati Diop
film profile] (working title: Fire Next Time), in Senegal this March. The film will feature local actors and will be shot in the Wolof language.

Written by Mati Diop and Olivier Demangel, the story is set in a working-class suburb of Dakar that stretches along the Atlantic coast, dominated by a futuristic-looking tower that is about to be officially opened. The construction workers have not been paid for months, so they leave the country via the ocean, in search of a brighter future. Among them is Souleiman, the lover of Ada, who is betrothed to another. Several days later, a blaze ruins the young woman’s wedding and mysterious fevers start to take hold of the local inhabitants. Little does Ada know that Souleiman has returned…

Produced by Judith Lou Lévy and Eve Robin for Les Films du Bal, Atlantique will be co-produced by Arte France Cinéma, Cinekap (Senegal) and Frakas Productions (Belgium). The feature, which has been pre-purchased by Canal+, TV5 Monde and Ciné+, is also being supported by the CNC’s advance on receipts, Senegal’s FOPICA fund, La Francophonie’s Image Fund, the Wallonia-Brussels Federation and Eurimages. The seven-week shoot will take place from March until early May 2018 in Dakar, Senegal, with Claire Mathon (nominated for the César Award in 2014 for Stranger by the Lake [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alain Guiraudie
film profile]) in charge of the cinematography. The French distribution will be handled by Ad Vitam, while MK2 is in charge of the international sales.

Atlantique is the second feature to be produced by Les Films du Bal, following Fort Buchanan [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (revealed at Locarno in 2014).

(Translated from French)