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Saint Omer (12A)

— ,Barbican Cinemas
Still from Saint Omer

Director Alice Diop's multi-award winning French courtroom drama is a revelatory examination of Black identity and motherhood.

Acclaimed filmmaker Alice Diop delivers a riveting and utterly unmissable courtroom drama based on the real life 2016 trial of Fabienne Kabou, featuring powerful and intimate performances by Kayije Kagame and Guslagie Malanda.

Saint Omer follows novelist and academic Rama who attends the trial of Laurence Coly, a young woman accused of killing her 15-month-old daughter. As the legal proceedings move forward, the words of the accused along with witness testimonies begin to shake Rama’s convictions and call into question both her judgement and that of the viewer. 

Best known for her nonfiction work in the critically-lauded documentaries We and Towards Tenderness, Diop has described this film as "Linked to who I am and what I saw in the way people perceived this woman. It’s something that reveals a form of racism that is very French.” 

 

Tagged with: Cinema New releases

France 2022 dir Alice Diop 123 min

  • ‘Vibrates at a rare wavelength. Sublime expression built on sincere, concrete images. Unflinching. ‘
    Barry Jenkins (director of Moonlight, If Beale Street Could Talk)
  • ‘A captivating, soul-shattering work overflowing with gentle sympathy.‘
    Robert Daniels, The Playlist
  • ‘Drama offers Diop a distinct, especially lavish visual grammar, marshaled into a richly defined portrait of that clawing duality that haunts so many Black people the world over.‘
    Kelli Weston, Film Comment
  • ‘In Diop’s film, the feminine revolt is a quiet, harrowing one.‘
    Rafa Sales Ross, Little White Lies

Barbican Cinemas

Location
Barbican Cinema 2 & 3 are located on Beech Street, a short walk from the Barbican’s Silk Street entrance. From Silk Street, you’ll see a zebra crossing that will take you across the road to the venue. 

Address
Beech Street
London
EC2Y 8DS

Public transport
The Barbican is widely accessible by bus, tube, train and by foot or bicycle. Plan your journey and find more route information in ‘Your Visit’ or book your car parking space in advance.