The only debut feature to premiere in competition at Cannes Film Festival last year, Ramata-Toulaye Sy’s West African love story Banel & Adama is now set for a a release this summer. I had the opportunity to catch up with Senegal’s Oscar entry and Rendez-Vous with Frenchi Cinema earlier this year and it’s quite a visual feast. Now, ahead of Kino Lorber’s release in New York on June 7 at Film Forum and in Los Angeles on June 14 at the Laemmle Royal, with more to follow, the first U.S. trailer has arrived.
Here’s the synopsis: “Banel and Adama are fiercely in love. The young married couple lives in a remote village in northern Senegal. For them, nothing else exists except each other. But for the rest of their tight-knit village, duty dictates that Adama soon accept the role of chief. The two lovers have their own plans… until something in the air changes. The rains do not come, the cattle begin to die, the men leave. The curse weighs on Adama’s sense of duty, and the chasm between them drives Banel into a feverish, mystical chaos. Banel & Adama is a lush and lyrical West African dreamscape, a tragic romance that soars to the heights of longing and descends deep into the realm of myth as it sets its protagonists’ perfect everlasting love on a collision course with their community’s traditions.”
See the trailer below.