|
Alice Diop (France, 1979), the rare black woman in French cinema,
daughter of Senegalese immigrants,
started out with documentaries such as
La Mort de Danton (2011),
La Permanence (2016) and
Nous/ We (2021) before directing
the courtroom drama Saint Omer (2022) at the age of 43.
The action takes place mostly in the courtroom and consists in testimonies of
what happened,
but the real treat is the obsessive psychological excavation of the writer
who is watching the proceedings and somehow identifies with the killer.
And so the film is also a silent kammerspiel nested inside the courtroom drama.
The film is a bit too cryptic and the ending is disappointing devoid of meaning.
Adrien, a white man, wakes up Rama, a young black woman, who is having a nightmare calling her mom.
We then see her teaching a class to students in a classroom which includes the
projection of footage of women being shaved. Rama tells the students that they
will study Marguerite Duras's script for Alain
Resnais' film Hirosima mon Amour.
Adrien and Rama have dinner with her family. We learn that Adrien is a musician
and that Rama is working on a book. They watch footage of young Rama.
Rama is not excited to help her mother.
Rama then leaves for a trip. She takes a hotel room in a provincial town,
Saint-Omer, and she attends the trial of Laurence, a Senegalese student who
lived with a much older white man, Luc, and is accused of causing the death of her 15-month-old daughter by abandoning her on a beach while the tide was rising.
Laurence claims that, after an argument with Luc, she left the baby on the
beach hoping that the sea would carry her away and that she feels cursed by an
"evil eye" on behalf of both her and Luc's families.
Laurence admits that the story is correct but claims that she cannot be held responsible because she lived two years of hell.
The judge asks Laurence to tell her story.
Laurence grew up in Senegal. She moved to France to escape the
oppressive situation with her separated parents and in particular the
tormented relationship with her mother.
Her parents encouraged to study but her father was disappointed when she decided
to switch from law to philosophy. He stopped supporting her financially.
She couldn't pay rent anymore and moved in with Luc, an artist who was
57 while she was only 24, who was married with a daughter.
She loved him and he paid for her studies.
Their relationship deteriorated because she had the vision of a secret of his.
She got pregnant by accident and she didn't tell him until it was too late for an abortion.
Luc testifies that he loved her, and welcomed the baby, but that Laurence was a very jealous woman with a hot temper.
Laurence told him that she couldn't have children and, when she became pregnant, she denied being pregnant for a long time.
Luc testifies that he took care of the baby like a loving father even though
Laurence intended to send the baby to Senegal.
The judge, however, points out contradictions: Luc never told his
eldest daughter Adeline about fathering the baby and didn't even attend the funeral.
Laurence's lawyer argues that
Luc didn't want the baby and in fact never changed his life after her birth
and never even introduced Laurence to his family.
The hearing ends and Rama is approached by Laurence's mother and they walk
together to their hotels.
Rama makes a phone call to her publisher Jean-Claude and they discuss her project of
a novel based on the Greek myth of Medea.
We see that Rama has recorded the hearing and she listens to it over again.
The following day the hearing resumes. Laurence tells how lonely she felt after
the birth of the baby and how she felt a hostile atmosphere in the house and had
hallucinations. Laurence claims that she found help only in clairvoyants, but none of the clairvoyants remembers her and her phone record doesn't show any call to them, not even to the one whom Laurence claims to have called every single day.
Laurence recounts how she gave birth while she was alone at home.
Luc's first reaction was to doubt that he was the father.
Laurence claims that she told Luc she wanted to send the baby to Senegal because she thought that's what Luc wanted.
Laurence claims that she killed the baby because of sorcery.
When Rama returns to the hotel, Laurence's mother Odile comes to see her and they dine together.
Laurence's mother guesses right away that Rama must be pregnant.
At the next session of the trial a female white professor of philosophy makes a racist comment about Laurence's culture. In fact, Laurence never showed up at the examinations
and she doesn't have any degree: she lied to everybody about being a graduate
student.
Rama listens attentively and always distraught.
Laurence's mother Odile is called to testify and she too blames sorcery for all
her misfortunes, including the hostile behavior of Laurence towards her.
At one moment Laurence and Rama exchange looks, Laurence seems to smile and Rama runs away crying.
At the hotel, still in tears, she tries to call Adrien.
A silent flashback shows little Rama next to her mother, neither looking at the other.
Back in court, Laurence describes how she took the baby to the beach and abandoned her there like a zombie. She admits that she was aware of the rising tide.
The prosecutor summarizes her action as a deliberate act to kill a baby that
nobody but Luc knew existed because Laurence had never told anyone, not even
her own mother, that she was pregnant, let alone that she had given birth.
Adrien visits Rama at the hotel, worried that Rama is identifying too much with
the story. Rama is scared she'll be like Laurence.
Given that Rama is estranged from her own mother, it is not clear whether she identifies with Laurence or with the baby that was abandoned and drowned.
The defense lawyer points out that Laurence could have killed the baby at birth and asks the jury for clemency because of Laurence's psychological state.
Her confused haringue concludes that all women are monsters.
We never hear the verdict.
We see the roofs of the quiet town, then we see footage of the young Rama with
her mother, and finally we see Rama and Odile holding hands silently in a somber mood.
(Copyright © 2024 Piero Scaruffi | Terms of use )
|
