INTERVIEW: JOE BADON

 

In an age when so many major films have escalating budgets that rely on soulless, artificial digital CGI effects to tell their stories, it is refershing when a micro-budget film like Sister Tempest arrives to remind us of the exciting possibilities still inherent in cinematic storytelling. 

Using a budget that is only a fraction of the cost of a typical studio film, the filmmaker Joe Badon uses practical effects, as well as carefully, hand-crafted costume and set designs to tell an expansive story with loads of imagination in Sister Tempest. In this interview, Joe Badon discusses what inspired him to make Sister Tempest, as well as his thoughts on film and art.

Can you talk a bit about your own background as a visual artist and illustrator, and how this inspired your films?

I've been professionally illustrating comics and storyboards for about 13 years. Somebody once called comics the "Poor man's movies". That's basically why I pursued comic illustration for so long. Also, storyboarding under other directors gave me plenty of insight on how to tell a story visually. 

Sister Tempest provides a very unique take on the family drama story of the bond between sisters. What inspired you to create this story?

This story is one of the most personal pieces of art I've ever created. It's me dealing with my personal relationships and also my divine relationships. I have a lot of religious shame from growing up in a Catholic Church to then eventually becoming a Youth Pastor at an Evangelical Church and then leaving the church having to deprogram myself from basically this cult that I was once in. And then after all of that, having to come to terms with and accepting who I really am-- which is basically just a screwed up weirdo. 

I took those experiences and funneled it into this fantasy tale about a torn relationship between two sisters. 

The special effects, as well as the set and costume designs, for Sister Tempest were very impressive. Can you talk a bit about the budget for Sister Tempest, as well as some of the visual and cinematic influences on your visual design for the film?

I wanted this film to be a cinematic mixtape so each layer of the movie had to have a distinct style. BUT we were on a VERY tight budget of $25,000. So I decided that the best way to pull off big ideas on a tiny budget was to keep everything retro looking and kitschy. 

I remember that I told my special effects guys that I wanted us to pretend that we're in the 70s and we're trying to pull off this big sci fi film with only the available resources and style that would be available to us in the 70s. I'm not sure if I pulled that off but that's what I was aiming for, at least. 

With the family drama, we wanted a 70's tv show sitcom meets Wes Anderson style. My wife Tonya really helps me with the look of my films (sets, costumes and wardrobe). So we both looked at shows like The Brady Bunch and One Day at a Time for the sets, wardrobe and hairstyle of the family drama aspect of the film. 

For a lot of the fantasy and choir sequences, we referenced The Color of Pomegranates because I am obsessed with that film. It's a perfect visual style that is obscenely underused. 

For the Kaiju sized Spaceman sequences, we studied Godzilla (of course) but also the TV show Danger 5 for its miniature work. 

There's a Space Council in the film. That was mainly inspired by the space council from the film The Evil Brain From Outer Space with some Zardoz and Zeta One sprinkled in there. 

How did you find the performers for your film?  In particular, the lead actress Kali Russell gave a very powerful performance.

I put out a casting call on Facebook and that's how I found the vast majority of my performers from both the films I've made. 

And Kali NAILED her video audition. Then she came over and read for me and I was convinced because she could change emotions on a dime and completely convince you. She's classically trained and because of that, she makes it look effortless. Plus, she was EXTREMELY easy to work with. She was up for anything you needed her to do, any last minute changes or requests-- she just went with it. 

Your own films have very elaborate and impressive production designs but on a limited budget. Would you ever want to work on a huge budget Hollywood studio film, and if so, are there any film franchises, books, or existing characters you would like to make with this increased budget?

Honestly, I really just want to get my own stories out there instead of working on someone else's creation. It feels weird. Not to say that I wouldn't do it but it just feels weirdly unfaithful to tell any stories other than my own.

BUT for shits and giggles, in another reality: 

Maybe take a stab at Alejandro Jodorowsky's Dune. I know I'd fuck it up severely but it'd be fun to shoot! Dr. Phibes would make a fun remake that everyone would probably hate. Maybe lovingly remake Exorcist 2: The Heretic because Boorman is incredible and that was an incredibly underrated film. 

Oh and Krull...that has so much potential for sci-fi, psychedelic, fantasy insanity. 

Can you talk about any future projects you are working on now?

God, I'm just trying to get through promoting, marketing and selling this one. I do have quite a few story outlines, plus I've shot a quarantine short film (that may stretch into a feature) but right now I've been devoting all my time to the post and premiere of Sister Tempest. 

Plus, I need some slightly bigger investors for projects moving forward, mainly because I want to pay all the cast and crew a living wage. I'm tired of having to have people pretty much volunteer their time. They need to be paid better. 

Thank you for your time, anything else you would like to mention?

Thank you so much! I appreciate you taking the time to watch the film and interview me! You can check out Sister Tempest at sistertempest.blogspot.com or look us up on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Just search for Sister Tempest.

 

FILM REVIEW: SISTER TEMPEST

The astonishing film Sister Tempest (2020) is not for the faint of heart, nor for those with limited imagination. Instead, if you crave films that will sever your carotid arteries, as well as warm up your still beating heart, then the absolutely gonzo and brilliant filmmaker Joe Badon has created something that will satisfy your love for the blissfully strange. Sister Tempest recalls the 1970s midnight cult films of Alejandro Jodorowsky with its startling scenes of hallucinatory depravity, and its non-linear, trippy narrative ranks with the best of classic surrealists like Salvador Dali and Luis Bunuel. But, in the end, Badon has constructed an absolutely idiosyncratic and unique cinematic experience that is entirely his own. Sister Tempest is a visual feast and a new cult classic that reminds us of the immense possiblities still waiting to be discoverd in cinema. 

The less said about Sister Tempest's story the best, as one of its chief pleasures is to see how the plot steadily reveals more and more surprising layers. Its framing story involves two close-knit sisters who have to fend for themselves after a family tragedy. Anne Hutchinson (played by Kali Russell in a powerful performance) watches over and raises her younger sister Karen (Holly Bonney) as if she was her own daughter. After Karen mysteriously disappears, Anne's life falls apart until she meets and develops a sisterly relationship with Ginger Breadman (Linnea Gregg), a young student of hers at an all-girls art school. Eventually, Ginger's relationship with Anne starts to mirror her previous relationship with her missing sister Karen, whom Anne has never fully gotten over.

Built around this central framing story is a dark and twisting deep dive into the inner psyche of Anne, whose fragile mental state steadily falls apart until we are essentially viewing the mind-scape of what may be a schizophrenic. Badon fills Sister Tempest with alternately shocking and aesthetically gorgeous visual tableus that reflect Anne's deteriorating mental state. We are witnessing both an unsettling portrait of a woman gradually descending into insanity, as well as a blissful examination of the bonds of familial love. 

The visual references in Sister Tempest range from Japanese kaiju films like Godzilla, to 1950s cult classic science fiction Hollywood films like the Day the Earth Stood Still and The War of the Worlds. Major figures in Anne's life manifest themselves as pop culture representations from the world of cinema, painting, as well as comic books. Badon, who is also an accomplished visual artist himself, stages several scenes in Sister Tempest against colorful, animated backdrops, giving the film the feel at times of a live-action manga. Near the end of Sister Tempest, Badon even includes a clever reference to Marvel superhero films and Japanese anime.

What makes Sister Tempest such an astonishing achievement is that Badon has been able to create eye-popping special effects and set designs at a fraction of the cost of a typcial Hollywood blockbuster film, but with even more imagination and visual flair. Badon created elaborately constructed miniature sets for many of his major locations (as an homage to similar sets from the classic Toho Studios Godzilla films), and the psychedelic costume and creature designs fit his overall pop-culture, retro 1950s aesthetic. Oftentimes, the digital CGI effects of modern day Hollywood films feel hollow and artificial, but Badon's practical effects and hand-crafted set design feel visually alive and authentic.   

Most of all, Sister Tempest is a reminder that there are still possiblities for cinema to continually innovate as an artform, and to embrace new forms of visual and narrative storytelling. Sister Tempest's continuous parade of hallucinatory sequences can enduce an almost trance-like state in the viewer, resembling what Jodorowsky was attempting to accomplish in his late career films The Dance of Reality and Endless Poetry. Like those films, Badon approaches cinema as the ultimate, mind-altering experience. Indeed, at times the dream-logic and startling use of colors in Sister Tempest resembles an acid trip; one that begins as a horrifying nightmare, but gradually evolves into a peaceful dream about sistery love.

FILM REVIEW: DA 5 BLOODS

With Da 5 Bloods, Spike Lee has made one of his most powerful and thematically complex films. Da 5 Bloods is not only an effort to give typically suppressed minority voices in war films a much more prominent role, but it also deals with such issues as intergenerational conflict, family strife, and the evolving nature of social change from the 1960s to the current era. Stylistically, Lee employs varying film stocks and aspect ratios to tell a dynamic and compelling story about how war can destroy a person and a country, but also result in much needed reform for a better future.

Opening in modern times, Da 5 Bloods is about four African-American Vietnam War vets who return to Vietnam as older adults on a mission to find the remains of their fallen squad leader Norman (Chadwick Boseman), and also to locate a buried chest of gold bars that they left behind during the war. The four veterans are Paul (Delroy Lindo), Melvin (Isiah Whitlock Jr.), Otis (Clarke Peters), and Eddie (Norm Lewis), and the main focus of the film is on Paul and his inability to completely resolve his post-traumatic stress disorder from after the war. Paul's estranged college aged son David (Jonathan Majors) joins the squad on their journey, along with Vinh (Johnny Tri Nguye), their Vietnamese guide.  

One of the most important aspects of Da 5 Bloods is Lee's decision to cast minorities (African-Americans as well as Asians) in leading roles. There's the aforementioned African-American leads, who all give powerfully nuanced performances, but there's also the Asian roles that Lee gives important roles to. Throughout the film, Lee cuts to Hanoi Hannah (Van Veronica Ngo), a disc jokey who uses her radio show to voice her support for the African-American soldiers fighting in Vietnam. Otis visits his former girlfriend Tien (Le Y Lan), a savvy and successful businesswoman, who it is revealed has a now adult daughter with Otis. The guide Vinh is portrayed as a strong and confident man who provides a steady hand for the squad during their journey.

By doing this, Lee is showing the interconnected cultural and at times personal (Otis, Tien, and their mixed-race daughter) connections between both African-Americans and Vietnamese. Both of these races were caught in an American-led conflict that sought to oppress them and destroy their lives. Da 5 Bloods, with its portraits of minority characters trying to rebuild their lives after the devastating Vietnam war, is Lee's attempt to empower those who were formerly forgotten and exploited by colonialist and imperialist forces. 

The Vietnam war was ultimately an American venture that was supported by French colonialist, who viewed Vietnam as being a country they wanted to conquer for their own. This aspect of the war is cleverly symbolized by the character of Desroche (Jean Reno), a morally shady French businessman who has volunteered to help the soldiers to illegally export their buried treasure safely out of Vietnam, although the soldiers continuously question his ulterior motives. Near the end of the film, we see Desroche wearing a Make America Great Hat, and he is purposefully made up to look like a carbon copy of Donald Trump. Without giving anything away, Desroche is portrayed as seeming to be more interested in maintaing power than helping the former soldiers. Lee is revealing how the oppression of minorities by Western powers still continues in the modern era, far after the Vietnam War has ended.

The hate fueled by the Trump administration is revealed in the lead character of Paul, who is an ardent Trump supporter who views outsiders (including the Vietnamese) as hostile forces, and Paul's every action seems driven by this animosity. By contrast, the other ex-soldiers are revealed as being more open-minded and accepting of others, and even eventually welcome in a rag-tag group of people from other ethnicities into their circle. Indeed, the last half of Da 5 Bloods reveals the separate paths Paul and his companions take in their journey; Paul becomes consumed by hatred and an indomitable need for power over others, while the other members of the squadron work together with an ethnically diverse group of outsiders to maintain peace and harmony. 

It's no coincidence that Da 5 Bloods culminates with Paul alone and separated from his group, while his racially eclectic companions end up in a tranquil Buddhist temple. This schism reflects the state of modern day America under Trump, with half the country living in a state of constant loathing towards outsiders, and the other half living in harmony with different races and genders. This concept of peaceful inter-race relations is best exemplified with Da 5 Bloods' subplot of Otis reuniting with Tien, and finally meeting and welcoming in his mixed race daughter into his life. Lee reveals that this state of harmony is also generational, as Paul's son David ends up siding with and being accepted by the more peace-loving group.

All of these thematic concerns would not work if Lee had made a film that wasn't aesthetically accomplished, and Da 5 Bloods is also a major cinematic achievement. Lee blends various styles of filmmaking, mixing newsreel footage from historical sources, along with different frame rates and film stocks, to create an astonishing and powerfully effective montage of race relations and generational conflict from the 1960s Civil Rights era, all the way up to the modern day Black Lives Matter movement. Da 5 Bloods is an urgent call for peace and love in a modern era that has become consumed with xenophobia and hate under a President that stokes these malicious flames. By connecting the current era with the turmoil of the past, Lee is guiding us into a future hopefully filled with more love and understanding for our fellow human beings. 

  

FILM REVIEW: EL PEPE--A SUPREME LIFE

Throughout his career, Emir Kusturca has always been drawn to stories about utopian dreamers and outlaws, so it's no surprise that he would make El Pepe: A Supreme Life (2018), a documentary about former Uruguayan President Jose "Pepe" Mujica.  Like the charismatic protagonists from Kusturica's films like Underground and Black Cat, White Car, Pepe Mujica was a revolutionary who worked from the margins of society to upend the dominant social order.  And, as in his previous films, El Pepe: A Supreme Life is very much a celebration of life and the human spirit amidst seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

El Pepe: A Supreme Life was filmed after Pepe Mujica retired from his Presidency, which lasted from 2010 to 2015.  As the President of Uruguay, Mujica was known as a plain-spoken "man of the people" and social rights reformer; he was able to reduce the national poverty rate from 40% to 11%, the unemployment rate from 13% to 7%, and he raised the minimum wage by 250%. Before his became President, Mujica was a guerilla fighter as a member of the MLN-Tupamaros movement during the 1960s and 1970s, when he fought against the authoritarian Presidency of Jorge Pacheco Areco. During this period, Mujica met Lucia Topolansky, a fellow revolutionary fighter who would become Mujica's lifelong companion and partner (Topolansky would go on to serve as the Vice President of Uruguay from 2017 to 2020). As a result of his guerilla activity, Mujica was eventually aprehended by the authorities and spent over 10 years in prison.

All of this biographical detail is covered in Kusturica's documentary, as he mixes archival footage with modern day recollections of his life by Mujica himself.  As the film opens, we see Kusturica and Mujica sitting outside Mujica's garden, as Mujica silently prepares a drink for the two of them. Indeed, what makes El Pepe such a fascinating film is Kusturica's combination of intimate personal details about the post-Presidential life of Mujica, with narration about his fascinating guerilla years and rise to the Presidency.

We see Mujica reflect on his regrets, such as never having had the opportunity to have his own children, as well as his thoughts on the state of the modern world, which he sees as being consumed by capitalism and greed. By following Mujica around in his daily life, such as visiting the construction and eventual opening of housing and a new school for those living in poverty, Kusturica and Mujica himself invite us as viewers into his altruistic worldview. For Mujica, money is not important, as he donates 90% of his post-Presidential salary to efforts to help out the poor.  Instead, what he values most, and what Kusturica himself does also in his own films, is a vision for a more equitable sense of community on a global level.

After his own country of Yugoslavia was torn apart by the Bosnian War during the 1990s, Kusturica became an exile from his own country after many accused his film Underground of being pro-Serbian propaganda.  Since then, Kusturica has tried to regain a sense of belonging in his native homeland by building his own village in Serbia.  This village, named Kustendorf, was created as a utopian vision of (in the words of Kusturica himself), "an open place with cultural diversity which sets up against globalization."  In this sense, we can see why Kusturica was drawn to creating a documentary about Mujica, as he saw a fellow utopian visionary in the former President of Uruguay.

Like the history of Yugolslavia itself, Kusturica saw Mujica's ascension to the Presidency as a long and arduous path to heal a country torn apart by violent strife.  And, after trying his best to unite the various factions of his country into one united whole, Mujica spent his post-Presidential years continuing his utopian vision of the world with his efforts to help out those living in poverty in Uruguay.  Throughout El Pepe, Kusturica keeps the camera at a deeply intimate and close level, allowing us as viewers to become fully engulfed in the unique and inviting society that Mujica is creating before our own eyes.

Throughout his tumultous life, the one constant in Mujica's life was his lifelong partner Topolansky, an extraordinary woman who was not only Mujica's political adviser and confidant, but also his soulmate.  This is the most touching aspect of El Pepe, as Kusturica reveals the deep love and connection the couple have for each other, from their early years as guerilla fighters in the 1960s, through their years as the leaders of Uruguay, and into their twilight years as an older couple enjoying each other's company.

El Pepe ends with a very moving visit Topolansky and Mujica pay to a restuarant, where they are serenaded by a band, as onlookers watch on.  It is personal and intimate details like this that make El Pepe such a powerful and emotional documentary.  Although it is very much a political portrait of a country and its history, El Pepe is ultimately the story of a man and a woman whose love and respect for each other sustains them into the last years of their lives.  Although both Topolansky and Mujica are still alive at the time of the making of El Pepe, Mujica acknowledges in the film that he feels like his life is coming to an end.  But, with Kusturica's deeply humanistic and poignant film El Pepe, we can only hope that Mujica's message will continue to inspire future generations.

FILM REVIEW: TOKYO TRIBE

Sion Sono has spent his entire career pushing the boundaries of sex and violence in cinema. He doesn’t do this simply to be a provocateur; instead, Sono is confronting viewers to sympathize with those in the margins of society whom we usually shun. Through his portraits of prostitutes, gangsters, and criminals, Sono is like a modern day Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and like Fassbinder, Sono wants to shed light on the dark corners of the human soul to give voice to the voiceless.

With Tokyo Tribe (2014), Sono is exploring the lives of youth who turn to gangsterism because it offers an outlet for creative expression for them. Rap and hip-hop music is rooted in the culture of inner city gangs in the African-American community, but Sono is viewing how Asian youth gangs take on this art form. Based on the popular manga series by Santa Inoue, Tokyo Tribe is the story of a turf war between various gangs in an alternate, futuristic Tokyo. The main players in this war are Show (Shōta Shometani), Sunmi (Nana Seino), Young Dais (Kai Deguchi), Mera (Ryōhei Suzuki), and Buppa (Riki Takeuchi). Each of these characters take on a prominent role in their respective gangs.

Tokyo Tribe is one of Sion Dino’s most expensive productions, and it shows in the intricately elaborate set design with its pop-art-like, bright color palette that recalls early MTV music videos and the paintings of outlaw graffiti artists like Daze and Banksy. There are gold-plated tanks, chainsaw-like bazookas, and a sort of human installation sculpture garden that recalls Salo and A Clockwork Orange. Also, Tokyo Tribe wouldn’t be a Sion Sono film without its share of over-the-top violence, including an absolutely bonkers musical fight sequence that ends with a giant, flesh shredding fan.

The cinematography in Tokyo Tribe, courtesy of Daisuke Sōma, vividly captures the throbbing energy of Sion Sono’s vision. The opening crane shot (filmed in a single, long uninterrupted cut) follows the character Show as he guides the viewer through a vibrant Tokyo cityscape at night, filled with vagrant youth, scantily clad prostitutes, and a DJ’ing grandma. Like his previous masterpiece Love Exposure, the camera moves freely through space and time, mirroring the many exhilarating and expertly staged fights sequences and musical numbers.

All of this technical bravado wouldn’t mean anything if it wasn’t in the service of a deeper purpose, and Tokyo Tribe is indeed more than just an exercise in style over substance. Ultimately, Tokyo Tribe is about the power of youthful idealism over nihilism. The battle between the various gangs in the film is a battle of light over darkness, of hope over fashionable pessimism. Sono reveals how the garishly violent Buppa and his gang only perpetuates an endless cycle of death and destruction, while the more optimistic characters of Show and Sunmi lead the turf war forward towards peace and love.

Indeed, the youth gang represented by Show, Sunmi, and Young Dais spend their time in the film at a 1950s style, brightly colored cafe, where they use hip-hop to celebrate positivity and love for each other. This contrasts with Buppa’s dark and bloody lifestyle, which is filled with gratuitous sex and violence, as most blatantly symbolized by his tendency towards cannibalism. Also, Buppa’s mansion is filled with instruments of death and torture, which contrasts sharply with the serenity of the youth cafe.

Tokyo Tribe ends on a wave of positive energy as Show leads a group of youth in an invigorating and uplifting hip-hop musical number about love and solidarity. By doing so, Sono is contrasting the criminal landscape of Tokyo we see at the opening crane shot sequence with a more hopeful conclusion. It is no coincidence that Buppa and his tribe are older than the gangs represented by Show and Sunmi. Like Jean-Luc Godard’s Masculin Feminin, Tokyo Tribe is a celebration of the power of youthful idealism over aging cynicism and disenchantment.

FILM REVIEW: THE GREAT BUDDHA+

I saw the Taiwanese film The Great Buddha+ (2017) during a visit to Taiwan in 2017, and I still haven’t forgotten about it. The Great Buddha+ is the clever and dryly amusing feature debut film of Huang Hsin-yao, a former documentary filmmaker. It was shortlisted for the 2018 Best Foreign Film Academy Awards category, and won several international awards, including Best Film from mainland China and Taiwan at the Hong Kong Film Awards, and six Golden Horse Awards.

What makes The Great Buddha+ such a remarkable film is its skillful mixture of satiric comedy and social commentary on class relations in modern day Taiwan. It is the story of a night security guard and his bumbling friend (who go by the names of Pickle and Belly Button) both of whom live in poverty and work for Kevin, a wealthy businessman who owns a Buddha statue manufacturing factory. One night, out of boredom, the two friends start investigating the dashcam footage of their boss’ car, and in the process discover dark hidden secrets about the businessman’s nighttime activities.

While this plot summary makes The Great Buddha+ sound like a traditional thriller, the way the film is shot is much more interesting. Huang, with his background in documentary film, lets the scenes play out naturally, as if he was observing real life without any cinematic artifice. We observe the day to day lives of the two main characters, as they find ways to get by while living on the margins of society.  Belly Button spends his days scavenging for items to recycle for money, and Pickle finds ways to keep his wealthy boss Kevin happy, while amusingly trying to find the right time to ask for a raise.

The humor in The Great Buddha+ comes from the sometimes absurd dialogue and darkly funny situations, such as a scene where Pickle gets cheated into buying a pair of sunglasses that he doesn’t need. Indeed, much of The Great Buddha+ is about power relations and dynamics between Pickle and his businessman boss Kevin, and between Pickle himself and his friend Belly Button. The laconic and droll humor of The Great Buddha+ is reminiscent of Aki Kaurismaki, who also makes films that examine the plight of those whom society traditionally ignores.

The tone of The Great Buddha+ gradually changes as Pickle and Belly Button start exploring the dashcam footage of Kevin, which evolves from late night dalliances with his mistresses to much darker matters. These scenes with Kevin’s activities play out in a unique manner, as they are shown through dashcam footage played out in realtime; we hear audio of the boss talking and seducing the different women he has affairs with, but we only see the road ahead as the car drives through the daytime and nighttime streets. Viewers are forced to imagine what they are hearing, which makes the later turn into more disturbing discoveries even more effective.

Without giving anything away, by the time that Pickle and Belly Button have discovered the dark, hidden secrets of Kevin’s nighttime sojourns, The Great Buddha+ effectively turns into a thriller of sorts. However, there is no bombastic music to pummel you with suspense; instead, Huang continues to observe the daily lives of his characters with the same non-obtrusive documentary-like manner. Pickle and Belly Button, who have spent much of the film looking up to and admiring the wealthy Kevin, now see him for the despicable person that he actually is.

By quietly and patiently letting the story of his characters play out naturally, Huang rewards the audience with an emotionally powerful climax that has deeper resonance. While the world is filled with those who struggle to get by, such as Pickle and Belly Button, and those who prey on others to obtain great financial wealth and power, like Kevin, in the end everyone meets the same fate. The Great Buddha+ ends with a Buddhist ceremony taking place, as if to memorialize the lives of its characters. Although those who are less fortunate may be forgotten and ignored during their lives, Huang is showing that they too are still human, and their story is just as important as that of the rich and the powerful.

FILM REVIEW: ATLANTICS

Atlantics (2019) is a mysterious and beguiling film that completely draws the viewer into its hypnotic spell. Directed by the Senegalese/French filmmaker Mati Diop, the niece of the legendary Djibril Diop Mambéty, Atlantics begins as a love story that turns into something much more enigmatic and complex. Diop keeps revealing more layers of meaning and surprises as Atlantics progresses, culminating in a touching and powerful coda.

Set in the capital city of Dakar in Senegal, Atlantics is the story of Ada (Mame Bineta Sane), a young woman who is in love with Souleiman (Ibrahima Traoré), but is bethrothed to marry the wealthy Omar (Babacar Sylla). After Souleiman is unable to get paid for his work at a construction company, he resorts to the desperate measure of taking a boat with his coworkers to Spain to find employment. Without giving anything away, the risky boat trip sets into motion a series of mysterious and supernatural events for Ada and her seaside community.

By calling her protagonist Ada, Diop alludes to Jane Campion’s The Piano. Like Campion’s protagonist in The Piano, Ada in Atlantics is a strong-willed woman who engages in a forbidden love affair. Also like the protagonists in Campion’s Bright Star and Top of the Lake, Ada is forever seeking a way out of her restrictive, male-dominated society, and in the process define her own identity as a woman.

Another similarity to The Piano is the important role of the ocean and nature in Atlantics. Throughout the film, Diop focuses her camera on the vast and majestic Atlantic Ocean. For the characters in Atlantics, the ocean is both a symbol of escape, and also a harbinger of tragedy. Souleiman seeks a better future for himself by escaping across the ocean, while Ada views the ocean as something that traps her within her family and unwanted marriage. Throughout Atlantics, Diop reveals how confined Ada feels, by framing her through fences and other man-made barriers. Ada’s only form of solace is a night club where she regularly goes with her friends.

Diop’s use of color and sound creates both a comforting and at times threatening environment, mirroring Ada’s journey through the film. When Ada is at the club, she is bathed in an otherworldly green light, while we hear the powerful waves of the ocean in the background. Indeed, Diop regularly cuts to alternatingly calm and ominous shots of the ocean, depending on Ada’s situation. Diop is more interested in creating a certain mood and tone than telling a straightforward narrative, and she successfully envelopes the viewer in her visually poetic world. Cinema is a primarily visual medium, and Diop has a complete mastery over this aspect of film.

With Atlantics, Diop carefully weaves an enchanting and at times eerie tale of doomed love and female empowerment. Although Ada struggles against many outside forces which try to control her, the concluding shot of Atlantics shows Ada coming to a satisfying self-realization. Spirits and ghosts appear throughout Atlantics, doomed lovers reunite, family members and friends argue and reconcile with each other, and all this is masterfully crafted by Diop; she is truly an exciting and powerful talent to watch.