Alice Diop’s Saint Omer, the French courtroom drama selected as France’s submission for Best International Feature at the 2023 Academy Awards will be released in the U.S.
Saint Omer had its world premiere at the 2022 Venice International Film Festival, where Alice Diop won the Silver Lion grand jury prize as well as the Lion of the Future prize for best debut film. It was later featured at the New York and Toronto International Film Festivals, and has received Gotham Award and Film Independent Spirit Award nominations for Best International Film.
The film stars Kayije Kagame (Rama), Guslagie Malanda (Laurence Coly), Valérie Dréville (La Présidente du tribunal), Aurélia Petit (Maître Vaudenay), and Xavier Maly (Luc Dumontet).
Directed by Senegalese-French documentarian Diop, in her first narrative feature, Saint Omer makes it US theatrical premiere at the Film Forum in New York City on Friday, January 13.
When asked why she killed her infant daughter, the accused, a young Senegalese-French woman — a PhD student writing on Wittgenstein — answers, “I don’t know. I hope this trial can help me understand.” What would compel such a shocking act, and why would an accomplished writer obsessively attend the woman’s trial? The complex mysteries at the heart of this absorbing, wholly original take on both the courtroom drama and the African immigrant experience, unfold like a Russian nesting doll of gazes and projections. Is the accused a liar, a victim, a sorceress, or all of the above?
Watch the official trailer for Saint Omer.