Netflix drops trailer for Oscar-contending ghost love story, Atlantics

October 9th 2019, 10:40am

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

The film from French-Senegalese filmmaker Mati Diop, ATLANTICS, made its debut at Cannes this year in historic fashion, becoming the first film from a woman of African descent to screen in competition at the festival. The movie earned rave reviews and won the festival's Grand Prix award, and was soon picked up by Netflix. Now the streaming service has debuted the first trailer for the movie, teasing a love story with social commentary and a supernatural twist.

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The story centers on a young woman named Ada (Mama Sané), who secretly loves another man, Soulieman (Ibrahima Traoré), who is not her fiance. Soon, Soulieman and other unpaid construction workers are lost at sea, and eventually, they come back as spirits, with Ada reconnecting with the spirit of her lost lover. While a typical story would center on the male journey of the men at sea, this one focuses on the women who are left at home waiting to hear back, blending it with a love story with a mysterious, ghostly twist.

Since the praise has continued and word spread out of Cannes, Senegal made the movie its official selection to compete for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars. Should the film get nominated, Netflix would have a shot at winning the award two years in a row, after ROMA from Alfonso Cuaron won it earlier this year.

Here's the synopsis:

“After a group of unpaid construction workers disappears at sea one night in search of a better life abroad, the women they have left behind in Dakar are overwhelmed with a mysterious fever. Ada, 17, secretly grieves for her love Souleiman, one of the departed workers, but she has been promised to another man. After a fire breaks out on her wedding night, a young policeman is sent to investigate the crime. Little does he know that the aggrieved workers have come back as possessive spirits. While many of them seek vengeance for their unpaid labor, Souleiman has come back for a different purpose — to be with his Ada one last time.”

ATLANTICS will be released in select theaters on November 15 and then hit Netflix on November 29.