Kuwaiti musician Fatima Al Qadiri was behind the musical score of the Senegalese film “Atlantique” which just won the Grand Prix award at the Cannes Film Festival a couple of days ago. It was Fatima’s first original score and if you have Netflix you’ll soon be able to watch the film and hear it since Netflix announced yesterday they were acquiring the international rights for the movie:
Netflix isn’t done pushing back against Cannes for rejecting its movies — if anything, it’s escalating the fight. The company has acquired international rights for two winners at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, with its crown jewel being Mati Diop’s Atlantics. The tale of a perilous love in Dakar won Cannes’ Grand Prix, the second most prestigious award at the festival. It also stands out as Diop’s first feature-length movie as well as the first movie helmed by a black woman to be in the running for the Palme d’Or.
The other title, I Lost My Body, won the best film award at the Independent International Critics’ Week section of the festival and also took the Nespresso Grand Prize. The animated flick from Jérémy Clapin is an unusual one — it follows a cut-off hand as it flees a lab to get back to the young man that it belongs to, and the woman that changed their lives. [Source]
I guess what I love the most about this is how all the people who gave her so much hate over the years probably feel really stupid right now. Score It magazine published an interview with Fatima where they discuss the film’s soundtrack and you can check it out here.
6 replies on “Fatima Al Qadiri Composed the Music for the Cannes Grand Prix Winner”
Who gave her hate?!! People who listen to generic Top 40 drivel most probably, not people who appreciate experimental music made by artists like The Dirty Projectors, King Crimson and Steve Reich.
Anecdote: I went to an art gallery exhibition my first year back in Kuwait and I was carrying my Senegalese briefcase, Fatima’s mother, who is an accomplished artist in her own right, saw my bag and asked, “is that from Senegal?” I was surprised that she was able to guess that! She then told me that her and her whole family lived in Senegal for a long time.
I think it’s awesome that Fatima’s first film score is not only for a film that won big at Cannes but that is Senegalese like her! That must’ve really touched her.
This is a major accomplishment for Fatima, congratulations! Tough to create challenging art as a Kuwaiti woman, but she stuck to her vision and it’s paying fruition. Major respect. Reading back those comments just shows you the challenges she must have faced in Kuwait.
Fortunately, she lives in New York where she’s celebrated for her talents, not told she’s “talentless” and “Kuwait’s Lady GaGa” (I just read those comments) from hateful people who have no taste, who listen to the radio and watch Fast and the Furious.
Enjoy 😉 https://youtu.be/MolWjT2eDuc
good lord, thank you… that was fantastic