Pop-up in Gate: Saint Omer (free screening)

Young writer Rama travels to Saint Omer to follow the trial of Laurence Coly, a Senegalese immigrant mother on trial for the murder of her baby. Rama is pregnant himself and discovers many parallels between her and Laurence.

Saint Omer, the fiction debut of award-winning documentary filmmaker Alice Diop. One-time free screening on Friday night 25 July at the Tiny Church in Almere Poort.

At the centre of Saint Omer is Rama, a journalist working on a book about Medea and soon to become a mother. Her research takes her to Saint Omer, where she attends the trial of Laurence: a young woman from Senegal studying philosophy in France who becomes pregnant by an elderly Frenchman. She keeps the pregnancy and birth hidden, deliberately leaving the baby on the beach to be carried away by the tide.

During her trial, she claims she was bewitched and cursed. The woman's almost imperceptible act raises all sorts of elusive ghosts from Rama's own past. Questions around origins and upbringing, and whether she herself was loved and desired by her mother.

Director: Alice Diop
drama, 122 min, 2022, French spoken, Dutch subtitles
9+

For more films, check out Het Nieuwe Filmhuiss full schedule