Banelli and Adama in the cinema: a love story that we are not used to seeing

In front of Bunnell and Adama’s sublime images, it is impossible to escape the dimension of the story. The two characters, united by their love but separated by the conventions of their society, have everything the great tragic heroes of literature have in common. For his first feature film, Ramata-Toulaye Sy works on the body of this imaginary story to deliver an extremely delicate and above all universal film.

If the scene is set in Senegal – the country of origin of the filmmaker’s parents – the story could be anyone’s. To play the title roles, the director surrounded only non-professional actors. Here, Mamadou Diallo plays Adama and Kadi Mane plays Banel.

“I noticed Kadi by chance, on the street, a month before the shootingexplains Ramata-Toulaye Sy in the press kit. Our eyes met and he immediately caught my attention, because despite his natural shyness, I saw in that look a mystery, a spark of madness..”

To work on this madness, the filmmaker recommended two films to his actress: Camille Claudel by Bruno Nuten and L’Histoire d’Adèle H. François Truffaut, a classic with Isabelle Adjani, where passion consumes his character.

In Banel & Adama, it is certainly a matter of love, but also, more interestingly, of fantasy. When they disobey the rules, the two heroes cause inexplicable events similar to the Ten Plagues of Egypt.

This quasi-religious event gives the director the opportunity to warn about global warming and offer spectacular scenes. “I grew up with popular movies and blockbusters, and for me cinema is synonymous with “spectacular”.“, he specifies.

“The stories of the griots that my grandmother told me as a child also inspire me. This is the packaging of who I am: a girl with dual French and Senegalese nationality. I try to organize this clash of genres in a coherent way“.

Banel & Adama, in theaters on August 30, 2023.