When France chose Saint Omer as its entry for the Oscars’ Best International Film category, journalists were quick to point out that director Alice Diop was the first ever black woman to represent the country. Yet in a week when the #oscarssowhite hashtag has resurfaced due to the omission of both The Woman King and Till from the nominations, it’s depressing to note that the fantastically visceral Saint Omer didn’t make it either.
Diop should not have been sidelined, but whether she cares is another matter. Because the 44-year-old’s first fictional feature suggests she’s less interested in being a winner than in dissecting the rules of a game that’s always been rigged.
Inspired by a surreal real-life court case, the film sees Senegalese immigrant Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanda) accused of abandoning her baby daughter on a beach one night, in the tiny seaside town of Saint Omer. Asked why she left 15-month-old Lili to die, gifted philosophy student Laurence blames witchcraft. Later, one of her former professors implies it’s culturally inappropriate for an “African” to be fascinated by Wittgenstein.
Watching is the pregnant, Paris-based, black academic Rama (Kayije Kagame), who doesn’t seem especially happy, but is what you’d call a success (she’s super-model pretty; her most recent book is on the best-seller list; her white publishers are very pleased with her). For all sorts of reasons, Rama feels a connection to Laurence. But, by empathising with Laurence, is our heroine guilty of erasing the rights of the baby girl?
The two central performances are excellent. Kagame’s Rama comes into her own in the film’s middle section when, traumatised by what she recognises as her betrayal of baby Lili, she’s overcome by a bout of nausea.
As for Malanda, she’s intense. In an exquisitely disturbing scene, she looks over at Rama and smiles in a way that’s half creepy and half adorable. How did Malanda pull that off? She also ensures that Laurence, when parrying an openly hostile barrister, resembles Alice in Wonderland. All whimsy, madness, intelligence. Thanks to the script and Malanda, Laurence is bursting with all three.
Saint Omer should have been an Oscar contender, but why focus on the people who didn’t get it? Judged on its own terms, Diop’s drama is a total success, a masterpiece which pivots on the tragic truth that most black women are set up to fail. The film’s quietly furious message is clear: for things to change, black mothers and daughters must save each other.
122 mins, cert 12A
