Banel and Adama is a great romance, a West African dreamscape, a tragic fable, and a feminist paean. Young, fiery Banel loves her soft-hearted husband Adama with singular passion. She also hates to do chores with other village women, slings stones at small creatures, and fantasizes a liberated life of cattle-herding outside the village in the dunes. Adama is next in line for village chief but resists the responsibility. When a catastrophic drought hits, the curse weighs on his sense of duty, and the chasm between them drives Banel into a feverish, mystical chaos. Senegal’s official submission to the 2024 Oscars®, BANEL & ADAMA was the only debut feature in Cannes’ Official Competition in 2023, and marked Sy as just the second Black woman to compete for the Palme d’Or, after her French-Senegalese compatriot Mati Diop (Atlantics), in the festival’s 76-year history. Director and writer Ramata-Toulaye Sy joins us for a conversation on her breathtaking feature film debut.

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