SAINT OMER

In 2013, all of France was captivated by the trial of a brilliant Senegalese student who had drowned her child in the sea near the town of Saint-Omer, a seemingly inexplicable act she blamed on sorcery. French-Senegalese documentary maker Alice Diop, who was pregnant herself at the time, spent weeks in the courtroom watching the trial unfold, an experience she has adapted as her first fiction film. This is not a conventional courtroom drama. Rama (Kayije Kagame) is a literary academic writing a paper on Medea; she can claim a professional interest. But as she watches Laurence (the magnetic Guslagie Malanda) speak, she finds herself identifying with this young woman, despite what she has done; she recognises her experience of having her identity and agency subtly denied by others, including this court. Diop’s account of the trial is ultimately an inquiry into how we construct our stories, both for others and for ourselves.