Haunted by War
A generational changing of the guard
Atlantics (2019) d: Mati Diop
La Llorona (2019) d: Jayro Bustamente
His House (2020) d: Remi Weekes
Mati Diop made history with Atlantics as the first black woman to direct a film featured in competition for the Palme d'Or at Cannes. It revolves around a young couple in Senegal and an attempt at irregular migration to Europe. It’s a ghost story, but also a love story.
On to more ghosts. 2019 apparently was the year for modern takes on the legend of La Llorona, but make sure you skip the awful American film, and stick with the version out of Guatemala. This film follows the story of a general starting to face the fallout for his role in the genocide of indigenous Mayans. The supernatural stuff here is not nearly as chilling as the real world horrors.
His House is one of my absolute faves from 2020, and it left me a sobbing mess. It’s a harrowing story of two asylum seekers arriving in England from Sudan, and their attempt to build a home, haunted (literally and figuratively) by what they’ve left behind. If you’re anything like me, you can’t get enough of Wunmi Mosaku, and she is unsurprisingly excellent here.