HYBRID IN-PERSON AND ONLINE PROGRAM

Saint Omer (Alice Diop, 2022, 122 min.)

Christopher Llewellyn Reed, Chair, Film & Moving Image Department, Stevenson University

Another film that wrestles with the potential burdens of being a mom, Alice Diop’s Saint Omer investigates the complexities of motherhood and the legal system through the lens of a criminal trial. The film follows Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanda), a young Senegalese woman accused of murdering her 15-month-old daughter. As the court case proceeds, the audience is drawn into the intricate emotional and psychological factors that led to this tragic event. Diop's measured approach allows the film to explore themes of cultural identity, societal pressures, and the human capacity for both compassion and cruelty. We see much of the narrative via the perspective of Rama (Kayije Kagame), a novelist and academic who has traveled to the northern city of Saint Omer (in France’s Pas-de-Calais department) so that she can hopefully one day write about the trial. While the plot can be harrowing at times, Saint Omer offers a thought-provoking and empathetic exploration of what it means to be a mother in a country that treats you like an outsider.

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