06/08/2019
And the African film chosen by a staff member for this week is 'Black Girl'🇸🇳...yes, this is a 😱
Black Girl is a 1966 film by writer/director Ousmane Sembène (based on a novella by him) and starring Mbissine Thérèse Diop, It follows Diouana (Mbissine Thérèse Diop) a young Senegalese woman from Dakar, Senegal to Antibes, France. She moves from Dakar as a nanny for a French couple, with the promise of continuing her job in France. Initially Diouana is excited to be moving to France and looks forward to living an exciting cosmopolitan lifestyle. However, after arriving in Antibes things change as the couple goes through a lifestyle change from the privilege lives of expatriates in Senegal to a normal middle-income household in France. Now Diouana is expected to also do house work, contrary to their work agreement. She becomes increasingly aware of her constrained and alienated situation and starts to question her life in France.