‘Banel & Adama’ Review: Star-Crossed Lovers Battle the Forces of Destiny and Expectation in Rural Senegal

Courtesy of Kino Lorber.

The tragic love story has a universality that has allowed such narratives to flourish throughout the history of art, theater, and cinema: the heartwrenching accounts of star-crossed lovers have appealed to the humanity of audiences for many centuries. Mostly funneled through Western perspectives from Romeo and Juliet to Anna Karenina, the tragic romance is rarely depicted in popular culture through any other viewpoint, despite the ubiquitous conditions under which romance can turn ruinous. With her debut feature film, Banel & Adama, French-Senegalese filmmaker Ramata-Toulaye Sy subverts traditions of tragic romance and incorporates her own cultural heritage, culminating in a work of visual poetry centering around a passionate devotion between two young lovers torn apart by the community they inhabit.

Set in an unforgiving desert village in northern Senegal, young married couple Banel (Khady Mane) and Adama (Mamadou Diallo) spend their days in total infatuation with one another. The pair hopes to shake off the shackles of religious and social expectations by moving away from their community and creating a home filled with love, far from the outside forces that could keep them apart. However, by patriarchal right, Adama is divined to become the next leader of their village, a responsibility the couple strongly rejects. The rainy season descends upon the town –– yet no rains come –– causing the death of much of their livestock along with vulnerable members of the community. The village elders claim the drought has been caused by Adama's choice to bypass his God-given role as their leader, and slowly, Adama begins to believe them. As devastation takes its toll, Banel and Adama's connection faces intense strain, leading to Banel's descent into delirium as the life she sets out for herself and her lover begins to fall apart.

Courtesy of Kino Lorber.

Concise in its narrative—– with a screenplay penned by Sy—Banel & Adama delivers a unique lyricism through its visual approach and subtle tonal shifts, beginning as a pastoral love story and evolving into a near-psychological drama. The director's focus remains fixated on Banel and her experience as a woman, becoming more multi-faceted as the audience learns of Banel's past and the lengths she will go to protect the future she sees for herself. Casting from a pool of non-actors from the Northern region of Senegal, Sy's performers are able to successfully embody the increasing melancholy and seriousness adopted by the film verbally and, arguably more importantly, through their body language and non-verbal gestures. The film's reliance on mood and spirit work as some of its most powerful features, setting it apart from other movies that tackle familiar ideas of tragic love.

Banel & Adama effectively confronts the constraints of traditional gender expectations through the representation of its titular characters. An early scene in the movie finds Adam telling Banel a local folktale of river sirens who historically destabilized the area through nefarious means, tying into traditional African lore of feminized mermaids who often led men to their downfall. This cultural reference makes a clear path for connections to be made between Banel’s character and the stories of the water spirits. Among the other women in her community, Banel expresses rebellious ideas of individuality that place her outside of the conventions of womanhood within such cultures. Banel disavows the cooking, cleaning, and caregiving that is pressed upon her as a woman, instead wishing to spend her time with her husband and plan for their future home away from the conservative village where she has been raised. Her detours from the status quo paint Banel as an increasingly lonesome and alienated figure among the other women, particularly her desire not to raise children, which Sy describes in the movie's press notes as almost unheard of in such cultures in rural Senegal.

As a man, Adama also initially denies the commitments placed upon him by his community. After the death of his father and older brother (Yero, Banel's first husband), Adama is next in line to take over as the village's leader. At just nineteen years old, Adama is incapable of comprehending such a responsibility, instead placing all priority on his wife and the life they wish to build together. When the drought strikes, the village's male elders put more and more pressure upon Adama to accept his divine commitments. Adama's more fragile disposition soon succumbs to the community's coercion; he turns away from Banel to avoid further bringing Allah's wrath down upon the villagers. While similar forces of convention weigh down upon both Banel and Adama, the movie has distinct methods in how it portrays their dissimilar experiences and the expectations of gender within such cultures.

Courtesy of Kino Lorber.

Banel & Adama's visual language is so crucial to the film's audacious assembly that it is essential to highlight the stunning cinematography from director of photography Amine Berrada. As the movie's impactful tension builds, its attention oscillates from a dreamscape of turquoise waters and windswept trees to a desert hellscape of rock-hard, cracked earth, and the skeletons of farm animals. Berrada and Sy deliberately construct painterly compositions that portray the relationship between the movie's central characters and their harsh natural surroundings, paying close attention to the unrelenting sun that beats down upon them and causes sweat to unceasingly stream down their faces. The film's praiseworthy cinematography culminates with a breathtaking finale shot during a sandstorm that rivals even the most expansive shots of the Arrakeen deserts seen in Dune.

Shot in the Fula language of West and Central Africa, Banel & Adama presents an interpretation of ill-fated lovers within a cultural context the Western world rarely glimpses. The film bypasses the stereotypical socio-political context found in much modern African cinema to present a universal tale of tragic romance still firmly anchored within the culture it depicts. An absolute visual feast centered around a hypnotic central romance, Banel & Adama works as a daring and promising feature debut from Sy and one of the most mesmerizing pieces of world cinema to be released so far in 2024.

4/5

Banel & Adama made its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023, where it was the only debut feature film in the Official Competition. The film begins its theatrical release in North America on Friday, June 7. Watch the Banel & Adama trailer below and click here to find showtimes near you.