In Review: Saint Omer, Alice Diop's Wrenching Portrait of a Woman on Trial

Based on a true case of infanticide in France, this film is anything but academic or predictable.

Dear Subscribers,

In the opening scene of French filmmaker François Ozon’s Sous le Sable (Under the Sand, 2000), the sea is a central character. Marie (played by Charlotte Rampling) stares at the shoreline after awakening from a nap in the sun, frantically scanning the waves for her husband…who never returns from his swim.

It’s an image of anxiety and anticipatory grief that’s long haunted me, especially since I’ve seen it more than once. And I was reminded of it while watching the opening sequence in Alice Diop’s 2022 film, Saint Omer.

In the latter scene, instead of anxiously surveying the water for a loved one in the heat of the sun, a silent figure instead slowly approaches the waves, carrying a baby in her arms under bright moonlight.

{Warning: some plot details follow, though I have tried to avoid revealing any major spoilers}.

Knowing what I knew about the film’s plot— and the devastating true case of infanticide in France on which it was based— it was painful to watch.