Film Details

France’s official submission for this year’s Oscar for Best Int’l Feature Film was shortlisted for the award but not nominated—despite near-universal rave reviews. Set in Saint-Omer, France, the film (inspired by a true case) focuses on the murder trial of a Senegalese immigrant woman accused of killing her infant daughter. Covering the trial is a pregnant Parisian writer who has an uneasy relationship with her own Senegalese-immigrant mother. She sees parallels between the case and the Medea myth. “Saint Omer challenges accepted ideas of perspective, of subjectivity and objectivity—and even of what cinema can be when it’s framed by an intelligence that doesn’t accept those accepted ideas.” –Variety. Subtitles. DCP. 122 min.