Furthering its push into content out of Africa, Netflix has taken the worldwide rights to Mati Diop’s Atlantics (Atlantique). The film just won the Grand Prix at Cannes.

The film’s official synopsis: Along the Atlantic coast, a soon-to-be-inaugurated futuristic tower looms over a suburb of Dakar. Ada, 17, is in love with Souleiman, a young construction worker. But she has been promised to another man. One night, Souleiman and his co-workers leave the country by sea, in hopes of a better future. Several days later, a fire ruins Ada’s wedding and a mysterious fever starts to spread. Little does Ada know that Souleiman has returned.

It is the feature directorial debut of Diop, the niece of groundbreaking African filmmaker Djibril Diop Mambéty and the first woman of African descent to have a film in a Cannes competition. Mambéty, a pioneer in the world of African cinema, directed the 1973 film Touki Bouki.

Diop also co-wrote the film with Olivier Demangel. Atlantics stars Mama Sané, Amadou Mbow, Ibrahima Traoré, Nicole Sougou, Amina Kane, Mariama Gassama, Coumba Dieng, Ibrahima Mbaye and Diankou Sembene.

Diop, who previously directed four shorts and a medium-length feature film, received the Martin E. Segal Emerging Artist Award from the Lincoln Center in 2016. Her films have screened at the Venice International Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival, the MoMA and more. As an actress, she’s also appeared in multiple films over the past several years, including Claire Denis’ 35 Shots of Rum.

Watch two clips from Atlantics below:

 

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Photo: Cannes