Saint Omer (2022), BBC iPlayer, written by Alice Diop, Amrita David, Marie NDiaye and directed by Alice Diop.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002f2ry/saint-omer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Omer_(film)

Saint Omer is about infanticide. Not a promising premise for a film. But it won a stack of awards. Writer and director Alice Diop comes from a documentary background. Saint Omer, the film’s title is also a place name. Based on the real-life trial of Fabienne Kabou, who was convicted in 2016 of drowning her 15-month-old daughter in the English Channel near the town of Saint-Omer. Director Alice Diop attended this trial and much of the film's dialogue is taken directly from the court transcripts.

Mirroring. Nothing wasted. Somerset Maugham’s trenched wisdom summarises the difficulties of being human and yet inhuman. ‘A void in the heart? Can only be filled by a piece with the same shape. If it is not filled by that very person, it will feel empty.’

Pregnant and young novelist Rama (Kawajje Kagame) attends the trial of Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanda). A Senegalese woman accused of murdering her 15-month-old child by leaving her on a beach to be swept away. 

The film begins with Rama showing films to her students of women having their hair shorn off. Marked down and shamed as Nazi collaborators by public acclamation. Ritual shaming that draws a line and lets others guilty of more serious crimes off the hook.

Rama is there at the beginning of the trial for jury selection. At first I thought she’d been picked as a jurist. But she’s a spectator.

The camera follows her and as the trial progresses we realise, as she does, that she could have been and in some ways is Rama. But for a twist of fate, she too could have been standing in the dock, trying to explain how she’d loved that child so much and yet.

Infanticide often evokes the myth of Medea. In Greek mythology, Medea is a woman who, betrayed by her lover Jason, kills her and their children in an act of vengeance. But it’s much sadder and complex. That’s the real tragedy. Women have always been the fall-guy. Alice Diop understands that better than most. Look on, if you must.