★ 6 / 10
<b>EXT. DESTINY - DAY</b> <i>Banel & Adama</i> is
Lachlan Thiele
EXT. DESTINY - DAY Banel & Adama is about destiny, loss and sacrifice. Luckily Banel & Adama doesn't sacrifice anything to present us with this story.…
EXT. DESTINY - DAY
Banel & Adama is about destiny, loss and sacrifice. Luckily Banel & Adama doesn't sacrifice anything to present us with this story.
Narratively it flows, opening on the love of our two protagonists: Banel, a woman who recently lost her partner and Adama, who has recently lost both father and brother (FYI, his brother was Banel's partner). With that recent loss, they are brought together out of, at least at the beginning, love and responsibility within the community and religion.
Banel & Adama have a great score matching fantastic cinematography at the start and end, relying upon the story to keep you engaged. Thankfully that story unfolds truths about their relationship and forces them to fulfil birthrights and responsibilities.
Unfortunately, the believability of their relationship is thin, and what's even harder to believe is the twist of how they came together, which is so quickly thrown in with minimal set-up and then so forgotten to make it seem like it's a plot line that was pulled last minute.
The first and final 20 minutes are its most
outstanding moments, visually, narratively and audibly. Making it worth your time.
FADE OUT.
★ 7 / 10
As pretty as it is sombre.
GiraffeDoor
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…
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.
★ 7 / 10
The Impossible Love
ricardojorgeramalho
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…
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.
95%
TOMATOMETER
· 41 reviews
95%
AUDIENCE
6.2/10
918
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been waiting for this!! thank you, freeman