- It's a constant battle, you know. Living in one country but also belonging to another. If you live in a western country, you are not directly encouraged to explore your roots outside the western world, says film director Mati Diop to the Culture News.

She is in Stockholm to participate in the Stockholm Film Festival. Her acclaimed and award-winning film Atlantics is included in the program, and for the next Oscars gala it will compete as Senegal's contribution. She has basically been on a constant tour since she finished working on the film just under a year ago.

- Black people in general, and women in general, definitely need to work harder than others to succeed. I don't think this would have been possible ten years ago. I feel very proud of my work, but also grateful for the struggle they have fought before me, ”she says.

Lost youth

Mati Diop is mainly raised in Paris, but a large part of her family comes from Senegal - including her father, composer Wasis Diop who collaborated with many of Africa's most famous directors, and her uncle, renowned director Djibril Diop Mambéti.

It is in the capital city of Dakar that Mati Diop discovered and developed his filmmaking for real - especially through the meeting with the young part of the Dakar population, where many men travel to the Atlantic to seek a richer life in Europe.

- Dakar's lost youth is divided into two. There are those who leave on the sea and die, and those who remain and try to control their lives as best they can. I've wanted to portray both, and I think that Ada embodies that.

Find home again

The film's protagonist, the young girl Ada, is to marry a well-to-do man but is really in love with the construction worker Soulieman. Suddenly Soulieman goes out to sea with his colleagues after being sniffed on his salary by a wealthy businessman. Ada and her friends stay alone, but soon something begins to haunt the neighborhood where they live.

- This movie has definitely been a way for me to discover and relive a youth I never had in Senegal. I have received good feedback from the Senegalese audience, and when they recognize themselves in my film it makes me feel that I belong there, says Mati Diop.