Every so often, a film comes along that leaves me speechless. Saint Omer is one such film. Written and directed by Alice Diop, Saint Omer is a 2022 French legal drama based on the real-life court case of Fabienne Kabou, who was convicted in 2016 for the murder of her 15-month-old daughter by drowning. A comedy, this film most certainly is not. Writer-director Diop was actually in attendance at Kabou’s trial. As a French documentarian from Senegal, she became obsessed with the trial and Kabou, the woman, who is also Senegalese. 

What’s remarkable about this movie is the rawness with which it tells this harrowing story. It’s easy to mark Kabou—showcased through an astonishing performance by Guslage Malanda, whom I’ll say more about below—as a psychopath, but Diop’s documentarian sensibilities allow her to dig deeper, to find the truth of this woman and her story and what led her to make this horrific decision, doing so without ever trying to justify the act but rather to see the totality of this woman, her history, and her follies. 

Diop says in an interview with W Magazine, “I wanted to find answers to my own intimate questions that I had asked myself about my relationship with my own mother and being a mother myself. And I decided that since I shared those same emotions with so many women, if we were all so obsessed with that event, it meant there was something universal in the story, which had to do with motherhood. So I decided to make a film about it.   

Malanda’s performance as Kabou is unnervingly riveting. She brings about all the poise and polish of Kabou’s upbringing in a wealthy Sengalese family, yet contrasts that with this tinge of off-kiltered melancholy and stoicism. It makes it so you question every word out of her mouth, yet can’t help but feel empathy, especially considering the racially charged environment she’s in and some of the less-than-pleasant characters that surround her. A nod of compliment must also be given to the film’s lead actress, Kayije Kagame, who plays Rama, a professor and novelist coming to observe the trial; ostensibly playing the part of Alice Diop herself. The film does a great job of using Rama’s backstory and her relationship with her mother to mirror the story of Kabou and, in turn, the stories of mothers and women everywhere. 

Saint Omer is a film that’s going to stick with me for some time. The fact that this is Alice Diop’s debut feature is remarkably impressive. Senegal can be proud that their storied history of talented filmmakers is in good hands with a woman like Alice Diop.

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