Le coeur de Madame Sabali

Le coeur de Madame Sabali is a Canadian tragicomedy starring Marie Brassard and featuring Amadou & Mariam — the internationally famous Malian musical duo — appearing as themselves. The film won the Grand Prix Focus at the Festival du nouveau cinéma and screened at VIFF, Palm Springs, Göteborg, and Thessaloniki.

Working alongside Amadou & Mariam's music — which is joyful, complex, and deeply rooted in West African tradition — I handled the broader sonic landscape of the film. The challenge was creating a sound world that honoured the warmth and strangeness of McKenna's visual style — the red polka dot swimsuits, the turquoise lockers, the lobster on the poster — without competing with the musical performances at the film's heart.

This was my first major collaboration with Ryan, and it set the template for everything that followed — Promenades Nocturnes, The First Winter, and beyond. The film's poster alone tells you what kind of filmmaker he is. Variety called it a "gorgeously stylized, wryly comic drama."