Saint Omer (film)

Saint Omer
Theatrical release poster
Directed byAlice Diop
Screenplay by
Produced by
  • Toufik Ayadi
  • Christophe Barral
Starring
CinematographyClaire Mathon
Edited byAmrita David
Music byThibault Deboaisne
Production
company
Srab Films
Distributed byLes Films du Losange
Release dates
  • 7 September 2022 (2022-09-07) (Venice)
  • 23 November 2022 (2022-11-23) (France)
Running time
122 minutes
CountryFrance
LanguageFrench
Box office$822,891[1]

Saint Omer is a 2022 French legal drama film written and directed by Alice Diop, and starring Kayije Kagame and Guslagie Malanda. It is Diop's first narrative feature; her other films have been documentaries. The film is based on the French court case of Fabienne Kabou, who was convicted in 2016 of murdering her infant by drowning. Diop attended Kabou's trial.

Rama (Kagame) is a pregnant young novelist who attends the trial of Laurence Coly (Malanda), a Senegalese woman accused of murdering her 15-month-old child by leaving her on a beach to be swept away. Rama imagines writing about the event as a literary retelling of the Greek tragedy Medea.

The film premiered in-competition at the 79th Venice International Film Festival on 7 September 2022,[2] where it won the Grand Jury Prize, along with the Luigi De Laurentiis Lion of the Future award.[3][4] Additional screenings were held at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival and the 2022 New York Film Festival before theatrical release in France on 23 November 2022.[5][6] The film was selected as the French entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards,[7] and made the December shortlist.[8] The film received the Grand Prix for Best Film at Film Fest Gent in 2022.

  1. ^ "Saint Omer (2022)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
  2. ^ "Saint Omer". La Biennale di Venezia. 30 June 2022. Retrieved 29 August 2022.
  3. ^ "Venice Film Festival Award Winners 2022". Indiewire. 10 September 2022. Retrieved 10 September 2022.
  4. ^ Pat Saperstein (16 September 2022). "Alice Diop's Venice Prize-Winner 'Saint Omer' Acquired By Neon's Boutique Label Super". Variety. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  5. ^ Picard, Andréa. "Saint Omer". tiff.net. Retrieved 24 August 2022.
  6. ^ "Saint Omer". cineuropa.org. Retrieved 24 August 2022.
  7. ^ Goodfellow, Melanie (23 September 2022). "Oscars: France Selects Alice Diop's 'Saint Omer' For Best International Film Race". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 23 September 2022.
  8. ^ Giardina, Carolyn (21 December 2022). "Shortlists for 95th Academy Awards Unveiled". The Hollywood Reporter.