Of Senegalese background, Ramata-Toulaye Sy was born and raised in Paris. She joined the screenwriting department of La Fémis in 2011, from which she graduated in 2015. Sy has worked as a screenwriter on films including Çağla Zencirci and Guillaume Giovanetti’s Sibel (2018) and Atiq Rahimi’s Our Lady of the Nile (2019) . In 2020, Sy directed her first short film, Astel, which was selected for more than eighty festivals and pre-selected for the 2023 César Awards. Banel & Adama is her first feature film.
Banel and Adama, a young married couple, are fiercely in love. They live in a remote village in northern Senegal, where, for them, nothing exists beyond their perfect everlasting love. In this world, however, there is no room for passion, let alone chaos — and now they are on a collision course towards their community’s traditional customs.
Director Ramata-Toulaye Sy
Producer Eric Névé, Margaux Juvénal, Maud Leclair-Névé
Screenwriter Ramata-Toulaye Sy
Cinematographer Amine Berrada
Art Director Rafael Mathias Monteiro
Editor Vincent Tricon
Sound Benjamin Silvestre
Music Bachar Mar-Khalifé
Colour Colour
Production Company La Chauve Souris, Take Shelter, Astou Films, Astou Production, DS Productions
International Sales Company Best Friend Forever
Distributor Pathé BC Afrique