A first-time filmmaker makes a mark in Cannes competition with a Senegalese drama
Most filmmakers in the Cannes Film Festival’s top-rung competition lineup are well-known directors who have been around for decades
CANNES, France (AP) — Most filmmakers in the Cannes Film Festival's top-rung competition lineup are well-known directors who have been around for decades. One dramatic exception this year is Ramata-Toulaye Sy, a French-Senegalese filmmaker whose first film, “Banel & Adama,” landed among the 21 films competing for the Palme d'Or.
“It’s only now that I realize that being in competition means being in a competition,” Sy said, laughing, in an interview shortly after “Banel & Adama” premiered in Cannes. “Now that we’re really in the middle of it, I realize there’s a lot of passion going around.”
Sy, 36, is the sole first-timer in Cannes' main lineup this year. She is also only the second Black female director to ever compete for the Palme, following Mati Diop, also a French-Senegalese filmmaker, whose “Atlantics" debuted in 2019. For the Paris-raised Sy, it's not a distinction of significance.
“I’m a filmmaker and I really wish we stopped being counted as women, as Black or Arab or Asian,” said Sy.
