Along the Atlantic coast, a soon-to-be-inaugurated futuristic tower looms over a suburb of Dakar. Ada, 17, is in love with Souleiman, a young construction worker. But she has been promised to another man. One night, Souleiman and his co-workers leave the country by sea, in hope of a better future. Several days later, a fire ruins Ada’s wedding and a mysterious fever starts to spread. Little does Ada know that Souleiman has returned.
«Mati Diop tells us about the countless emigrants, of whom we often hear but do not know much. We experience the perspective of those who stay behind. They let their friends, their family or their lover set off across the Atlantic into the unknown. The special thing about this film is that at some point it mixes the genres. The dead become ghosts. Dream and reality mix together. The sea, filmed again and again in the most diverse moods, forms this very original story into a metaphor about disappearance.»
― Bettina Oberli