For her first feature film, the French-Senegalese director -- one of seven women filmmakers competing this year -- set up her camera in a rural village in northern Senegal.
Presented Saturday on the Croisette, the film is entirely in Fulani.
At the center of the plot, a couple: Banel and Adama. The two lovebirds love each other and aspire to leave the village to live away from the pressures of two families.
"The love story is a pretext to tell Banel's story," the director told AFP. "I wanted to tell the complexity, the depth of this woman, her questions and her suffering."
Feisty, rebellious, rebellious... Banel wants to live her life and passion with Adama as she sees fit. When she stands up to her mother-in-law by confiding in her refusal of motherhood, she waves the threat of a second wife.
© Antonin THUILLIER /
"Banel is a character who fell from the sky, who has no place in this village. She does everything to live there but can't do it," she continues. And to add that he wanted to tell a "universal story".
Isolated, Banel has no friends, her twin brother disapproves of her.
Ramata-Toulaye Sy wrote this film in 2014 when she was a student at the Fémis film school. "I put it aside because I didn't feel ready to direct. It wasn't until 2020 that I decided to get started," she says.
Ramata-Toulaye Sy, who was born, raised and educated in France, says he felt the "need" to make her first film in Senegal.
A work with a very neat image. "The first part of the film is really the dream of Africa, its nature, its light," she explains. The second part of the film is darker and deals with the issue of drought, which kills livestock and causes villagers to leave their land.
Representative of the African continent, alongside the Tunisian Kaouther Ben Hania, how does she live the fact of being in competition? "It's a little scary," she says with a smile.
"The competition can be very tough, the critics too. But hey, we're here and it's a great pride."
© 2023 AFP