A young writer has her preconceived convictions shaken by a tragic court case in Director Alice Diop’s drama from France, Saint Omer.
Based on true events, Diop’s film tells the story of Rama, a successful journalist and author living in Paris, who travels to the northern town of Saint Omer, to attend the trial of Laurence Coly, a young Senegalese woman accused of murdering her baby daughter. Although Coly admits to killing the child, she claims it was a kind of sorcery out of her control. Rama’s original plan to write about a book about the case, inspired by the Medea myth, increasingly unravels as she becomes overwhelmed and is forced to reckon with memories of her own immigrant mother as well as her impending motherhood.
Saint Omer, Diop’s narrative feature debut, took home the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize and the Lion of the Future, Best Debut Film Award at the Venice International Film Festival, is France’s official selection for Best International Feature at the 95th Academy Awards, and was nominated for Best First Time Feature for the 75th Annual DGA Awards.
On January 12, the Eastern Region Special Projects Committee’s Global Series screened Saint Omer at the Guild’s New York Theater. Following the screening, Diop engaged in a conversation about the making of the film moderated by Director Dee Rees (The Last Thing He Wanted).
Asked how she used the camera and blocking to increase the pressure on the character, Diop replied, “My approach to directing this story came directly from my personal experience witnessing the actual trial. I spent five whole days watching intensely with fascination this woman and more I tried to understand her the less I did. Because I could not figure out this person, it stirred lots of things inside me. When I decided to make this story, I wanted to place the spectator in the same emotional position as I found myself during the trial. That is how I decided the long uninterrupted shots were the way to go so that as I did, the spectator would find himself with the same ability to observe intensely and to try to comprehend this woman.”
Diop’s other directorial credits include the documentaries We, La mort de Danton and La permanence; and episodes of the series Dimanche investigation and H24, 24 h de la vie d'une femme.
You can listen to Diop's Q&A by clicking the podcast episode embedded below. You can find more DGA podcast episodes here.