S.W.’s Scores
Continuity
+4
Entertainment
+3
Rewatchability
+2
CastMama Sané, Amadou Mbow, Ibrahima Traoré
StreamingCriterion Channel
S.W.’s Verdict
Mati Diop made a film about migration, grief, and love that shifts genre midstream — starting as a social realist drama about Senegalese workers who disappear crossing the Atlantic, then quietly becoming a ghost story. The tonal transition is more atmosphere than mechanics, which means it either envelops you or loses you. When it works, it's haunting in a way that most horror films would envy. When it drifts, it drifts beautifully but without urgency. Not a film you return to often, but one that stays.