Saint Omer

2022 2h 3m FR

😐

6.1

MID

★6.1TMDB · 215

DramaCrime

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A novelist attends the trial of a woman accused of killing her 15-month-old daughter by abandoning her to the rising tide on a beach in northern France. But as the trial continues, her own family history, doubts, and fears about motherhood are steadily dislodged as the life story of the accused is gradually revealed.

“Some stories are better left unspoiled.”

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Cast

Kayije Kagame
Rama
Guslagie Malanda
Laurence Coly
Aurélia Petit
Maître Vaudenay
Valérie Dréville
La Présidente
Xavier Maly
Luc Dumontet
Robert Cantarella
Avocat général
Salimata Kamate
Odile Diata
Thomas De Pourquery
Adrien

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Alice Diop
Writers: Amrita David, Alice Diop, Marie N'Diaye
Languages: French, Portuguese
Countries: France

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 6

ERA

Did you know

Released 4 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 6

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: French, Portuguese.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 6

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Alice Diop, shot by Claire Mathon. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 6

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Amrita David shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 6

CAST

Did you know

Kayije Kagame and Guslagie Malanda and Aurélia Petit carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 6

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt15376894 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Alice Diop directs. Claire Mathon behind the camera. Amrita David cuts. Produced in France. Dialogue in French, Portuguese.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released 4 years ago.
2Dialogue crosses 2 languages: French, Portuguese.
3Directed by Alice Diop, shot by Claire Mathon. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Editor Amrita David shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
5Kayije Kagame and Guslagie Malanda and Aurélia Petit carry the top of the cast.
6IMDB entry: tt15376894 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

The technical file

Cinematography: Claire Mathon
Editing: Amrita David
Sound: Emmanuel Croset
Runtime: 123 min · 2h 3m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Box office: $823,074
Original language: FR
Certification (US): PG-13
IMDB: Saint Omer (2022)

Awards

César Award for Best First Film

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Alice Diop

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2025-07-04
★ 7/10
I generally like the style of French courtroom dramas. They lack the stuffy formality of the more typical judicial scenarios and are generally much more combative. This one isn’t so much about the crime, but more about our appreciation and perhaps forgiveness of it’s causes. Senegalese arrival in France “Laurence” (Gustalgie Malanda) is on trial for a murder we know she committed. She took her newborn baby and left it on the beach at high tide whereupon it duly drowned. She’s perfectly open about that but claims that she was the victim of sorcery, perhaps emanating from the spirits in her homeland, and that she had little memory or consciousness of the deed. This case is being observed by a writer, “Rama” (Kayije Kagame), who is also having issues around a pregnancy of her own and that serves as a parallel story of an immigrant with a native French boyfriend, a traditional mother and anxieties that mount as she follows more of this investigation. Is “Laurence” a manipulative and devious murderer who never wanted the child, or is she mentally ill and innocent of culpability in her daughter’s death? It’s a slow burn this drama but at times there is a lot of fairly intense and thought-provoking dialogue that asks questions of superstition, isolation, loneliness and also of the responsibilities of parenthood as this woman gives evidence. The infant’s father, the older and married “Dumontet” (Xavier Maly), was unaware of the pregnancy and so it also highlights the dwindling role of the father in the whole childbearing process. He is accused of cowardice and neglect of this woman, yet what opportunity was he given by her, or the law, to impose himself on a situation being controlled by a person allegedly not capable of rational thought? His impotence is writ large. It is maybe a little longer than it needed to be, but it’s provocative and it doesn’t offer us any simple or trite answers to some fairly fundamental and controversial challenges.

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