…A great film, with a wonderful central performance. A complex, layered, very interesting exploration of race, class and gender. I highly recommend it.

Jason Di Rosso,

ABC Radio National

Saint Omer

4 SEP:  7 pm
Drama (subtitles)
123 Mins | France | 2022 |

VENUE: VERANDAH ROOM
MALENY COMMUNITY CENTRE
23 MAPLE STREET MALENY 

This film is based on the true case of a Senegalese immigrant accused of murdering her 15-month-old daughter. Rama, a bestselling author and academic, lives in Paris and is heading to the town of Saint Omer, to write what her publishers hope will be a delicious report about the shocking case. Like Rama, the defendant Coly is of Senegalese background, well-educated and articulate. Coly’s brazen defence, maintained with unflinching, enigmatic conviction is that she was subject to sorcery and spells from her aunts back in Senegal, and she believes this to be a legitimate defence which the court should make an effort to understand. The gripping legal proceedings touch on race, class, gender, culture and the tide of history and power, which resonate with anxieties and confusion that have an unsettling and electrifying effect which we don’t entirely understand. Nevertheless we leave with the sense of being exposed to something profound that remains with us afterwards.

EVENING SCREENING
No need to book in advance
Doors Open at 6:00 pm for cabaret seating and pizza  (pay by the slice), licensed bar, complimentary tea/coffee
Movie starts at 7:00 pm