‘Saint Omer’ director Alice Diop on why making a political statement is important to her films – The Deadline Q&A

Alice Diop’s French drama Holy Omer opens in cinemas today and I remember the emotions I had when I saw the film last year in Venice. It was a very personal experience for me – like someone telling my story on screen. At the beginning of my last interview with Diop, I asked her where she saw herself in the French film industry. She made it clear that she no longer thinks about how she fits in. “It’s a question I get asked a lot, but I no longer wonder where I fit into French cinema,” she said. I don’t blame her for thinking that. Professionals of color are often faced with questions like these – or about the state of inclusion in Hollywood and how they will improve it. Questions that their white colleagues often and wrongly avoid.

Written by Diop, Amrita David and Marie N’Diaye, Holy Omer allowed the director to focus on her work and let the story speak for itself. “I no longer want to put my energy into what my place is in the industry,” she said. “I want to put my energy into what I have to say.”

Inspired by real events, the film is loosely based on the Greek tragedy of Euripides Medea and follows Rama (Kayije Kagame), a university professor who is writing a novel. She attends the trial of Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanda), a young woman accused of murdering her 15-month-old daughter by abandoning her on a beach in northern France. The words of the accused and the testimonies will challenge everything Rama thought he knew about generational trauma and motherhood.

As Diop’s first feature film Holy Omer won Best Debut Film and the Silver Lion at Venice, a Gotham Award for Best International Film, was named one of the top five international films by the National Board of Review, received a DGA nomination for New Director and was shortlisted for the international film Oscar.

During the interview, Diop explains why she thinks about it Holy Omer being a political statement about the complexities of being a black woman and the pressures of motherhood.

MEETING: The film won the Silver Lion in Venice and is on the shortlist for a possible nomination for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards. Against this background, where do you see yourself or how do you see yourself growing in the French film industry? What do you think the future holds for you?

ALICE DIOP: 10 years ago I probably wouldn’t have given you the same answer. This is a question I am often asked, but I no longer wonder where I fit into French cinema. I am 43 years old today. I have a long background as an activist and I feel this type of questioning is not for me. I no longer want to put my energy into what my place is in the industry. I want to put my energy into what I have to say and that is politics. I think there are many people who can answer this question, but today I want to focus on my films. I feel like I’ve always been the same person. I’ve always done what I do and when the way people look at me has changed, that’s great, but my priority is to keep moving forward and digging deeper into my work.

MEETING: I know it’s going to be tiring to answer this question…

DIOP: It’s not that it’s tiring, I feel that what I have to say about this is embodied in my answer to the other questions you ask. What is political to me is the film issue, which some people don’t want us to be in. That’s why I choose to let my political work and my thoughts be answered in my films.

DEADLINE: Sint-Omer is a powerful film that explores the black woman and what it means to be a parent. Where were you mentally when you put all the elements together? to create this story?

DIOP: The film cost me a lot emotionally, but I enjoyed what made me passionate while making it. It was an opportunity to create a portrait of a black woman in all her complexity that I have rarely seen in films or read in literature, something I miss very much. I did not specifically make this film to deal with the subject of infanticide. It was about creating these powerful characters that defy the imaginary projections that people cling to when they see black women on screen. Another important aspect of this film for me was that it was an opportunity to show how much the black body expresses and carries universal things. This story is carried by two black French actresses Holy Omer.

MEETING: How do you protect yourself when you come across these emotionally charged stories? The story was very familiar to me because it reminded me of my relationship with my own mother and my own complicated way of looking at the world, politics, the law. And it’s sometimes hard to fathom, even for me.

DIOP: It’s a universal film that speaks to all women around the world, but I’m also aware that it takes place in a very specific context of black womanhood – the stories, stories of pain and silence that we black women have to endure. I don’t know very well the history of black women in the United States, but I know it in France and I know how difficult it is. I showed my friend the film for the first time. I did this so that she and I could shed all the tears that I could not shed while filming the film. As I went through this process, she had to see that the film was made by us, for us, and by us I mean black women.

BOUND TOGETHER: Alice Diop Says Lament Amid Her French Oscar Entry ‘Saint Omer’ ‘Overwhelms Me’ – Contenders International

MEETING: Within the black diaspora, our experiences are universal. The film understands that our lives are more complicated than usually seen in movies, especially here in America. There are several tropes that black actresses are subjected to. Holy Omer shows the various complications of what it means to be not only black but also a woman and how these things intersect.

DIOP: If images of black women are bad in the US, it is much worse in France. Her blackness is always the focus of her story, whereas in my film it is not the focus. Holy Omer is about motherhood. Rama is a university professor, which reflects aspects of my life and that of my friends.

MEETING: Their stars Kayije Kagame and Guslagie Malanda are attuned to the complexity you mention.

DIOP: The main characters are quirky, complex women. There is no one like her. It was an opportunity to portray bodies and a cerebral being that has a multifaceted experience. For example, Rama is intelligent but has not yet reached her full strength. There is a tremendous vulnerability in their way of dealing with motherhood and family issues. These characters don’t need to be represented by tropes, as we have the right to be free of them. We have the right to be fragile and vulnerable and to create film forms where we can explore our deepest wounds.

MEETING: After watching the film, I wondered why the story did not reveal the end result of Laurence’s trial. Then I realized it wasn’t about that. It is about the moments between Rama and her mother and Rama becoming a mother. Can you talk a little bit about why you did the ending that way?

DIOP: Holy Omer is not a test picture, and the question of Laurence’s guilt is irrelevant. It is a film about character. In fact, the entire mise-en-scene of the film is designed to put us inside Laurence’s mind. We listen and see this woman who is rarely seen, and in a way it gives her a way to recover from what happened to her.

MEETING: How would you describe Rama’s journey?

DIOP: What interested me in building the character of Rama was to reveal through her what the film is really about. Towards the end of the film, the question arises: “What is a mother?” is unresolved. It actually raises more questions: how do you become a mother based on the mother you have? Black women inherit this history of violence and silence. It’s a certain taste that I consider political. I wanted to find out how you love your children in an authentic way, how does your past affect that love and how do you recover from it?

MEETING: The characterization forces the audience to delve deep into the minds of these women. The story challenges the audience to empathize with these women, especially Rama.

DIOP: At the beginning of the film, we see that Rama is a powerful intellectual who is perfectly comfortable in a university classroom, but when she is near her mother, she freezes and becomes mute. At the end of the film, she sits next to her mother on the couch and watches her. This is the journey that the film follows. It’s a banal thing, I think, but it’s also very existential, historical and political. All these dimensions are carried through the journey the story takes with the viewer.