Ramata-Toulaye Sy’s Banel & Adama – 2023 Cannes Critics’ Panel: Day 4

It’s extremely rare for a first-time filmmaker to crack the competition and this is case it is African cinema that is being feted for this remarkable feat. A project that gained tremendous word-of-mouth last year in the different labs it attended, Ramata-Toulaye Sy‘s Banel & Adama stars non-actors Mamadou Diallo and Khady Mane.

Banel and Adama are fiercely in love. The young married couple lives in a remote village in northern Senegal. For them, nothing else exists. Yet their perfect everlasting love is on a collision course with their community’s customs. Because in this world, there is no room for passion, let alone chaos.

Current temp: On our end we might have been expecting paydirt with what is a rare inclusion of a first time director in the competition. With fourteen of our twenty critics we have an average score of 2.6 – which pushes this near the bottom of the comp offerings so far.

Click on the grid below for a larger version and the latest updates!