"As expansive as it is claustrophobic, Saint Omer tears the heart and boggles the mind”—Amy Taubin, Art Forum. A gut-punching contemplation of a woman's immigrant experience, SAINT OMER puts a mother on the stand and the audience in the jury box to find humanity in the inhumane. Alice Diop’s debut fiction film is the story—mostly played out in a courtroom—of a French immigrant who admits immediately to the charge against her: nothing less than killing her 15 month old daughter by abandoning her to the rising tides of a French beach. An open and shut case, it would seem. But as we watch, sharing the viewpoint of Rama, a young writer, the story becomes much more complex indeed…..Showered with critical hosannahs, from the Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival to the Prix Jean Vigo in France, SAINT OMER is the country of France’s submission to this year’s Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film, and fully would deserve that honor. “Like the crime at its center, there is nothing simple about this film”—Drew Gregory, Autostraddle.
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