Adama (2015)

The film is set in 1916. Adama is a teenager who has grown up in an isolated village in West Africa with his older brother Samba, whom he admires and adores. On the edge of the village rise cliffs beyond which lies a desert swept by violent sandstorms: the World of the Winds, realm of the Nassaras, where the village elders forbid anyone to go. Adama and Samba’s coming-of-age rite is approaching. But one night, Adama catches Samba in the family hut, preparing to leave. Samba is going to enlist in the army, as it is the only way to help their parents financially during a poor harvest. The next day, everyone believes Samba is lost forever, and the village elders forbid anyone from setting out to look for him. Despite this, Adama resolves to try to find his brother. He sneaks away through the passages that run through the cliffs, passing by the wooden-and-fur costume of the initiating spirit. This is the beginning of a long journey that takes him much farther than he expected, all the way to the battlefields of the First World War in France. After a perilous crossing of the desert steppe, Adama arrives in a port village. There, he learns that his brother has sailed for France with the army’s new recruits. When Adama finds himself in a difficult position with the army recruiters, the village madman appears as if by magic and gets him out of trouble, but is himself recruited in turn. Adama manages to board the ship, where he finds the madman along with other Black soldiers. Exhaustion and anxiety overwhelm him during the sea voyage. Arriving in France is a surreal sight: Adama has never seen so many ships. He discovers a European city, radically different from anything he has known. The cold gets to him, he misses his village and his brother, and his search is going nowhere. Adama meets a sailor who promises to take him north. But Adama soon realizes the sailor has swindled him. In the tavern L'Albatros, the boy confronts the sailor, accusing him of stealing his last few coins. He is then noticed by a barmaid, the sailor’s sister, who takes him under her wing and decides to help him. The sailor follows them, at first reluctantly, and proves to be better than he seemed. The two of them help Adama jump aboard the military train bound for Verdun. Once in Verdun, Adama passes himself off as a young recruit and gradually makes his way toward the battlefield. He finds himself alongside the “poilus” in the trench, where he tries to find his brother. He is told that Samba has shown great courage and is trapped somewhere in no man’s land. The bombardment and battle are an apocalyptic vision. Adama presses forward and manages to find Samba. But the two are put in great danger, first by the bombardment and an enemy plane strafing them, then by the mustard gas. Adama, who did not put his mask on in time, is poisoned and collapses unconscious in Samba’s arms. As if in a dream, Samba drags his brother to a rocky crevice. The village madman reappears as if by magic and urges them to go farther and farther beneath the rock. At last, they emerge into the passages through the cliffs, all the way back to their home village. In the rocky passage, the spirit’s costume guarding the entrance to the World of the Winds now includes a gas mask.