'Saint Omer' — France’s submission for the Best International Feature Film Oscar — is a powerful meditation on the immigrant experience
It’s like watching this story in double vision. Diop’s camera is intently focused on faces — particularly Rama’s, who is so in keyed into these proceedings that moments arrive in which the sound of the court proceeding dims and the audio zeroes in on the taut rhythm of her breathing. Diop slowly builds the brick house of Laurence’s personal narrative up only to give us a court that will systematically tease it apart.
So much of whatwants us to understand is in its approach to the fates of the Black mothers it depicts. So much of what it has to say about the experience of immigrants, in particular, is in the echoes we encounter in these women’s stories. How much of her own mother does Rama see in Laurence? And of herself? And then there’s the other tie — an unexpected encounter with Laurence’s mother, who singles her out as the only other Black woman in the court .
Ireland Latest News, Ireland Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
“Saint Omer,” Reviewed: A Harrowing Trial Inspires a Complex, Brilliant FilmAt the heart of Alice Diop’s stunning courtroom drama, about a woman who is charged with infanticide, is the power of language to spark imagination.
Read more »
Alice Diop and Guslagie Malanda on Their Powerful New Film, ‘Saint Omer’Movies set in contemporary France have typically portrayed a myopically white world, but that’s slowly beginning to change—Alice Diop’s Saint Omer was selected as France’s official submission for the best international feature Academy Award.
Read more »
Spellbinding 'Saint Omer' straddles truth, fictionWhat would possess a young mother to leave her 15-month-old daughter on a beach to die in northern France? A young, pregnant novelist becomes obsessed with this question and the trial of the accused mother in 'Saint Omer.'
Read more »
‘Saint Omer’ Review: Alice Diop’s Stunning Legal Drama Challenges Our Conception of the GenreOne of the last great films of 2022 is one that takes place almost entirely within a lone courtroom though reveals something far more expansive.
Read more »
Review: No, movies are not empathy machines — and the brilliant ‘Saint Omer’ shows whyStunningly acted by Guslagie Malanda and Kayije Kagame, Alice Diop's quietly spellbinding courtroom drama will represent France in the Oscar race for best international feature.
Read more »