Mati Diop

Directing

Mati Diop

Born 1982-06-22 · Paris, France

Mati Diop (born June 22, 1982) is a French-Senegalese actress and film director. She directed the 2019 film Atlantics, for which she became the first black female director to be in contention for the Cannes Film Festival's highest prize, the Palme d'Or. At Cannes, Atlantics won the Grand Prix.

Acting credits

Both Sides of the Blade poster
5.6

Jean and Sara have been living together for 10 years. When they first met, Sara was living with François, Jean’s best friend and an admirer from back when he played rugby. Jean and Sara love each other. One day, Sara sees François in the street. He does not notice her, but she is overtaken by the sensation that her life could suddenly change. François gets back in touch with Jean. For the first time in years. He suggests they start working together again. From here on, things spiral out of control.

Both Sides of the Blade

2022

Bye Bye poster
5.0

No synopsis available yet.

Bye Bye

2011

Simon Killer poster
5.9

A recent college graduate flees to Paris after a break-up, where his involvement with a prostitute begins to reveal a potentially dark recent past.

Simon Killer

2012

Queens of Drama poster
7.4

It's 2055 and Steevyshady, an obsessive Mimi Madamour stan, tells us of their idol’s mad destiny from the very peak of her career in 2005, all the way down to the pits of hell, a downfall brought about by her love story with punk icon Billie Kohler. Over the course of half a century we follow these drama queens as they top the charts and set sail on the course of mad queer love.

Queens of Drama

2024

35 Shots of Rum poster
6.8

A widower and his daughter witness the retirement of a colleague of his and the closing of her department at her university.

35 Shots of Rum

2009

Hermia & Helena poster
5.5

Camila, a young Argentine theater director, travels from Buenos Aires to New York to attend an artistic residency to develop a Spanish translation of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Upon her arrival, she begins to receive a series of mysterious postcards which set her down a winding path through her past and towards her future.

Hermia & Helena

2016

A History of Mutual Respect poster
5.6

When two boys leave for a philosophical journey and only one is prepared for it, their worlds will part forever.

A History of Mutual Respect

2010

Sleepwalkers poster
NR

Corsica, summer 2009. Pascal, a young medic indulges in his boredom and melancholy between the hospital corridors and streets of the city. Mustapha an illegal worker at a hotel in the center of the island is forced to go underground. Between the two, a choir of young people changes the world.

Sleepwalkers

2011

In My Room poster
5.8

Made during confinement, "In My Room" plunges us into the poignant story of a woman at the twilight of her life, through recordings of the director's deceased grandmother. Living rooms become stages where life is performed. Windows become portals to the lives of others.

In My Room

2020

L for Leisure poster
5.7

A dreamy, ironic comedy about a generation of hedonistic students in the 1990s. Their favourite activity: talking endlessly. During a series of vacation days filled with sun-drenched naps, squabbling, waterskiing competitions and love-making, the amateur actors discuss their concerns in dry dialogues. For instance, semi-intellectual reflections on the end of time and how Michael Jordan plays basketball.

L for Leisure

2015

Fort Buchanan poster
4.9

Four seasons to tell the fluctuating moods and mores of a small community that shares its daily chores and life experiences in the military base of Fort Buchanan. In this imagined (perhaps dreamed?) location, peculiar habits respond to the needs of a peculiar environment. Roger, a fragile gay man, and his female companions, trying to cope with the absence of their husbands, go through their own brand of challenges for survival, with their own form of outdoor camaraderie, thought-occupying chat and DIY activities. Roger has a tough daughter who runs him ragged, but he has buddies willing to help: Justine, Denise, Pamela and Claudia-Joy.

Fort Buchanan

2014

Another World poster
2.9

1915. Louis, aged 17, arrives on Reunion Island to find his father, Count Kerdiguen. He has built himself a new family with Salima, his native partner, and their daughter Sita. Between the white and native communities, tensions are increasingly mounting...

Another World

2011

Fort Buchanan: Hiver poster
NR

When Roger's husband deploys to Djibouti, he's left alone at Fort Buchanan with his temperamental daughter Roxy. Her violent outbursts drive him to seek comfort in friends and self-confidence through boxing lessons with a personal trainer.

Fort Buchanan: Hiver

2012

No artwork available
NR

Six years ago, Yoshido directed La Vie lointaine, the adaptation of the eponymous novel of Haruki. Two days before the end of the shooting, a sudden and strange rise of fever struck the members of the crew causing the film to stop. Today, Yoshido is an old and weakened man. When he leaves the hospital, he knows he only has little time to live. During the night, after a few glasses of saké, he decides to resume the shooting of his unfinished film.

Yoshido (The Other Life)

2010

Behind the camera

Dahomey poster
6.5

Thousands of royal artifacts of Dahomey, a West African kingdom, were taken by French colonists in the 19th century for collection and display in Paris. Centuries later, a fraction returned to their home in modern-day Benin. This dramatized documentary follows the journey of 26 of the treasures as told by cultural art historians, embattled university students, and one of the repatriated statues himself.

Dahomey

2024

Dahomey poster
6.5

Thousands of royal artifacts of Dahomey, a West African kingdom, were taken by French colonists in the 19th century for collection and display in Paris. Centuries later, a fraction returned to their home in modern-day Benin. This dramatized documentary follows the journey of 26 of the treasures as told by cultural art historians, embattled university students, and one of the repatriated statues himself.

Dahomey

2024

Dahomey poster
6.5

Thousands of royal artifacts of Dahomey, a West African kingdom, were taken by French colonists in the 19th century for collection and display in Paris. Centuries later, a fraction returned to their home in modern-day Benin. This dramatized documentary follows the journey of 26 of the treasures as told by cultural art historians, embattled university students, and one of the repatriated statues himself.

Dahomey

2024

Naked Blue poster
5.0

Naked Blue was developed through a collaboration with Oumy Bruni Garrel, the film’s protagonist, and Devonté Hynes, who composed its score (performed by the Budapest Scoring Orchestra). From this combined star power emerges a work of startling intimacy, which follows then-13-year-old Oumy’s choreographed movements through a studio set painted an underwater blue, as she dances in front of mirrors and salutes an imaginary audience. Under the blazing lights and swelling music, her performance recalls a screen test or dance film—but the resulting work breaks free from the proscenium frame typical of those genres. — Museum of Modern Art

Naked Blue

2022

A Thousand Suns poster
6.8

In 1972, Djibril Diop Mambety shoots "Touki Bouki." Mory and Anta are in love. Two young lovers share the same dream: to leave Dakar for Paris. At the fateful moment, Anta embarks. Mory stays alone on quay, unable to tear himself away from his land. Forty years later, "A Thousand Suns" investigates the personal and universal inheritance which represents "Touki Bouki." What has happened since? Magaye Niang, the hero of the movie, has never left Dakar. And today, the old cowboy wonders where Anta is, the love of his youth. Stories about family, exile and cinema meet between the sphere of intimacy and that of myth.

A Thousand Suns

2013

Atlantics poster
6.7

Arranged to marry a rich man, young Ada is crushed when her true love goes missing at sea during a migration attempt — until a miracle reunites them.

Atlantics

2019

Atlantics poster
6.7

Arranged to marry a rich man, young Ada is crushed when her true love goes missing at sea during a migration attempt — until a miracle reunites them.

Atlantics

2019

Liberian Boy poster
4.4

Jules had been hard at work rehearsing the steps to "Billie Jean" for the end-of-the-year show. That same year, he jumped onstage in the middle of a post-rock concert, took off his shirt, leapt into the crowd. That’s when we started to film him. Then we offered to spend a day in a studio and film him dancing.

Liberian Boy

2015

Atlantiques poster
6.0

The odyssey of Senegalese friends who attempt a life-threatening boat crossing.

Atlantiques

2009

Atlantiques poster
6.0

The odyssey of Senegalese friends who attempt a life-threatening boat crossing.

Atlantiques

2009

Olympus poster
NR

Full moon above the city of Paris. A young man crosses the city neighborhoods on his bike, when elsewhere a group of distinguished young people that seem to come from another planet, stroll, smoke and chat.

Olympus

2017

No artwork available
4.6

Film following a Vietnamese director's wanderings through Marseille after her lead actor goes missing. Karaoke, beach sunrises and diaspora reminiscences.

Big in Vietnam

2012

No artwork available
4.6

Film following a Vietnamese director's wanderings through Marseille after her lead actor goes missing. Karaoke, beach sunrises and diaspora reminiscences.

Big in Vietnam

2012

Limbo Visions 1 poster
NR

Four filmmakers share a montage of their original ghost images and rushes on a mix of I've seen the future.

Limbo Visions 1

2015

30th anniversaire of FIDMarseille poster
NR

For the 30th anniversaire of FIDMarseille about thirty directors have done us the honor of offering us some very beautiful short films.

30th anniversaire of FIDMarseille

2019

Île artificielle—Expédition poster
NR

Christopher Columbus discovered America while looking for India. Columbus' journeys are subjective and undefined. Illusions take over objective observation. When one leaves, it is always his/ her own dreams that take off first. The edge of the world is definitely more narrow than the idea of it.

Île artificielle—Expédition

2006

In My Room poster
5.8

Made during confinement, "In My Room" plunges us into the poignant story of a woman at the twilight of her life, through recordings of the director's deceased grandmother. Living rooms become stages where life is performed. Windows become portals to the lives of others.

In My Room

2020

In My Room poster
5.8

Made during confinement, "In My Room" plunges us into the poignant story of a woman at the twilight of her life, through recordings of the director's deceased grandmother. Living rooms become stages where life is performed. Windows become portals to the lives of others.

In My Room

2020

Snow Canon poster
4.4

February in the French Alps. Vanina likes to hear the chalet’s parquet floor squeaking beneath her bare feet. Vanina likes to coat herself in sunscreen cream in front of the fireplace. Vanina likes the tawny fur of her rabbit. But above all, what Vanina likes is her American babysitter, Mary Jane…

Snow Canon

2011

Snow Canon poster
4.4

February in the French Alps. Vanina likes to hear the chalet’s parquet floor squeaking beneath her bare feet. Vanina likes to coat herself in sunscreen cream in front of the fireplace. Vanina likes the tawny fur of her rabbit. But above all, what Vanina likes is her American babysitter, Mary Jane…

Snow Canon

2011