Details:

Director: Ousmane Sembene
Country: France/Senegal
Year: 1965
Language: French
Runtime: 60 minutes
Cast: Mbissine Thérèse Diop, Anne-Marie Jelinek, Robert Fontaine

Schedule:
November 8
Category:
Senegal Tribute

    Black Girl / La noire de...

Sembene's debut feature made a profound impression at international film festivals in 1966, and the evolution of African cinema can be dated back to this point. Shot in a simple, New Wave style, it tells a bitter story of exile and despair.

The heroine is a Senegalese maid taken to the Riviera by her employers. Once out of Africa she realizes what being African means: it means being a thing: "the black girl." Sober and restrained, Black Girl never loses sight of its central theme of the myth of decolonization.

"In humility, the strength of endearment."