Saint Omer

Years ago, Laurence Coly came from Senegal to France to study philosophy. She becomes pregnant by an older Frenchman, a pregnancy she kept hidden, just as she did the delivery. When the child is 15 months old, she leaves it behind on the beach to be carried away by the tide. For this incomprehensible act, she is now on trial in the northern French town of Saint-Omer. The trial attracts the attention of the self-pregnant writer Rama, who is working on a book about Medea, the child murderer from Greek mythology. The trial confronts her with ghosts of the past: was she wanted, was she loved by her mother?

Saint Omer is the feature debut of documentary filmmaker Alice Diop. She based the story on an almost identical but real case from 2013. The way she did this, with changes of perspective, impressed internationally, earning her many awards, including the Grand Prize of the Jury at the last Venice Film Festival.