美国国家公共电台 NPR Mati Diop On 'Atlantics,' A Ghost Story, A Love Story And A Refugee Story

 

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

In the new movie "Atlantics," a group of young men set off on a boat from the coast of Senegal in West Africa. They are fed up with their lives and have made the fateful decision to sail to Europe. But "Atlantics" is not a movie about them. It's the story of the women they've left behind. And it's a ghost story. NPR's Bilal Qureshi reports.

BILAL QURESHI, BYLINE¹: The young woman at the center of "Atlantics" is a teenager named Ada. She's growing up in a conservative Muslim family in Dakar, Senegal. Her parents have arranged her marriage, and planning is underway. But Ada is in love with Souleiman, and they meet in secret by the sea.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "ATLANTICS")

IBRAHIMA TRAORE: (As Souleiman, foreign language spoken).

MAME BINETA SANE²: (As Ada, foreign language spoken).

QURESHI: One night, Ada sneaks⁴ out of her bedroom to meet Souleiman at a bar on the beach. The film's director, Mati Diop, sets the scene.

MATI DIOP: And the night where Ada decides to - for the first time of her life to sneak³ out, when she arrives on the dance floor, she finds an empty dance floor because the boys are no longer here anymore.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "ATLANTICS")

UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST: (Singing in foreign language).

QURESHI: Souleiman never shows up. In the modern language of being stood up, Ada has been ghosted. So have all the other young women waiting for their boyfriends. Ghosting is the precise word to describe what happens next. "Atlantics" dramatizes the stories of the young men who leave countries like Senegal in hopes of reaching Europe and how their absence and their loss haunts the women they abandoned, as filmmaker Mati Diop explains.

DIOP: When I was in Dakar, the way the boys were telling me about the crossing felt very strange to me because I was talking to boys who were here in front of me in flesh and bones but who are so possessed⁵ by the idea of elsewhere that they were no longer here anymore. And it's also about a youth who disappeared in the ocean, which can be felt like a ghost generation, you know? - a whole group of young people who disappeared in the ocean. And I personally - I was troubled. I was being haunted by that. And that's why for me, it was always going to be a ghost film.

QURESHI: "Atlantics" is the first feature film by the 37-year-old French writer and director.

DIOP: The starting point of the film is quite personal. I have a very special relationship to migration⁷. I'm the daughter of an immigrant. And as a mixed girl, the tension between departure and coming back is quite present in me.

QURESHI: Mati Diop's father is from Senegal, and her mother is French. And she grew up in Paris in a family of artists, as film critic B. Ruby⁸ Rich explains.

B RUBY RICH: Her uncle, Djibril Diop Mambety, is a very, very famous filmmaker who went to Cannes in 1973 with his film, which has become a classic of international cinema, "Touki Bouki," that won the International Critics' Award there that year. So she has a kind of creative legacy⁹ and specifically a cinematic legacy.

QURESHI: Mati Diop made her first version of "Atlantics" 10 years ago as a short film. She began travelling back and forth¹⁰ between France and Senegal to reconnect with her African heritage. She says she found her voice in those journeys and in her hyphenation.

DIOP: To be a mixed girl born in the '80s is - I think the experience is you're already a little bit in the future, you know, because you're inside a culture of complexity¹¹ in terms of globalization. And so I think that it made me evolve in a very - yeah, very dynamic environment.

QURESHI: Mati Diop's seamless blend of the supernatural with the pressing crisis of migration has already made "Atlantics" one of the most talked-about international films of the year. But critic B. Ruby Rich says what elevates Atlantics it's beyond its, quote-unquote, "important subject" is the storytelling.

RICH: You hear that there's a film about Senegal. You hear that is a film about men drowning crossing the Mediterranean¹². Right away, you expect a certain kind of film. But that's not what this film is - not at all. This is a film that is about magic. It's about good magic and black magic. It's about the in-between spaces - you know, between here and there, between Europe and Africa, between those who are alive and those who are dead, between the past and the present - and, in a way, between documentary and fiction.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "ATLANTICS")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (Singing) (Unintelligible).

QURESHI: "Atlantics" achieves another rare feat⁶ for world cinema. It puts the lives of young African women at the center of its story with an ensemble¹³ of non-actors recruited from Dakar. When "Atlantics" was selected to compete in this year's Cannes Film Festival, Mati Diop became the first woman of color ever to have her film screened in competition at the festival.

DIOP: All I did was to work on a story that I thought was right to talk about, that was my own challenge, dream and accomplishment¹⁴. But then the fact to be the first black woman to go there - it was also sad that it was - the first time this happened was in 2019.

QURESHI: Atlantics won the Jury Prize at Cannes, and the film is Senegal's official entry to the Oscars. Paris-based film critic B. Ruby Rich says it's also been embraced by audiences in Mati Diop's home country, France.

RICH: After many years of white French filmmakers daring to make films about black bodies, it's wonderfully on point to have someone like Mati Diop now leap to the front of the line and bring her vision of bodies and spirits to the screen.

QURESHI: "Atlantics" will not be confined to arthouse cinemas or European audiences. Netflix acquired the film at Cannes and will release Mati Dip's vision around the world when it begins streaming next week.

Bilal Qureshi, NPR News.

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 sane   

adj.心智健全的，神志清醒的，明智的，稳健的

参考例句：

• He was sane at the time of the murder.在凶杀案发生时他的神志是清醒的。
• He is a very sane person.他是一个很有头脑的人。

3 sneak   

vt.潜行(隐藏,填石缝)；偷偷摸摸做；n.潜行；adj.暗中进行

参考例句：

• He raised his spear and sneak forward.他提起长矛悄悄地前进。
• I saw him sneak away from us.我看见他悄悄地从我们身边走开。

4 sneaks   

abbr.sneakers (tennis shoes) 胶底运动鞋（网球鞋）v.潜行( sneak的第三人称单数 )；偷偷溜走；（儿童向成人）打小报告；告状

参考例句：

• Typhoid fever sneaks in when sanitation fails. 环境卫生搞不好，伤寒就会乘虚而入。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Honest boys scorn sneaks and liars. 诚实的人看不起狡诈和撒谎的人。 来自辞典例句

5 possessed   

adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的

参考例句：

• He flew out of the room like a man possessed.他像着了魔似地猛然冲出房门。
• He behaved like someone possessed.他行为举止像是魔怔了。

6 feat   

n.功绩；武艺，技艺；adj.灵巧的，漂亮的，合适的

参考例句：

• Man's first landing on the moon was a feat of great daring.人类首次登月是一个勇敢的壮举。
• He received a medal for his heroic feat.他因其英雄业绩而获得一枚勋章。

7 migration   

n.迁移，移居，（鸟类等的）迁徙

参考例句：

• Swallows begin their migration south in autumn.燕子在秋季开始向南方迁移。
• He described the vernal migration of birds in detail.他详细地描述了鸟的春季移居。

8 ruby   

n.红宝石，红宝石色

参考例句：

• She is wearing a small ruby earring.她戴着一枚红宝石小耳环。
• On the handle of his sword sat the biggest ruby in the world.他的剑柄上镶有一颗世上最大的红宝石。

9 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

10 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

11 complexity   

n.复杂(性)，复杂的事物

参考例句：

• Only now did he understand the full complexity of the problem.直到现在他才明白这一问题的全部复杂性。
• The complexity of the road map puzzled me.错综复杂的公路图把我搞糊涂了。

12 Mediterranean   

adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的

参考例句：

• The houses are Mediterranean in character.这些房子都属地中海风格。
• Gibraltar is the key to the Mediterranean.直布罗陀是地中海的要冲。

13 ensemble   

n.合奏(唱)组；全套服装；整体，总效果

参考例句：

• We should consider the buildings as an ensemble.我们应把那些建筑物视作一个整体。
• It is ensemble music for up to about ten players,with one player to a part.它是最多十人演奏的合奏音乐，每人担任一部分。

14 accomplishment   

n.完成，成就，（pl.）造诣，技能

参考例句：

• The series of paintings is quite an accomplishment.这一系列的绘画真是了不起的成就。
• Money will be crucial to the accomplishment of our objectives.要实现我们的目标，钱是至关重要的。