I subscribed to BFI Player just to watch it. The movie Banel e Adama is epic and full of Archetypal symbols... I am not even sure Ramata is aware of what she has created here... Banel is the incarnation of the free Queen of Heaven, passionately, possessively, angrily, vengefully in love... She is Eve from the garden of Eden reincarnated in Evil times. She rejects superficial traditions and wants something different for her and her love Adama. Adama is Reason, she is Heart, Soul. Banel rejects fatalistic determinism and dreams of the time when men and women were masters of their own destiny... Banel is Kali the goddess of wanton destruction and violence, she kills birds and lizzards with her sling for no apparent reason... she killed her first husband to be with her true love Adama. Adama appears confused and scared, he succumbs to superficial traditions, is he really the Archetype of the First Man Adam? May be we have been handed down a misogynistic story of Creation, perhaps Eve came first and out of her womb came Adam... the film ends with a Sand Storm, a desert Typhoon one of the ancient Pharaonic Supreme gods. Death naturally ensues but the rain also comes and the circle of life turns again... Critics that said the movie needs a story are superficial, uneducated ignoramuses. Bravo for this African masterpiece !!! No reference to Senegalese Sufi Islam, but the silence and the sound of wind that permeate the movie are deeply spiritual and symbolic of the metaphysical...