La noire de...

Not exactly a cheery story and a pretty simple one as well, but the important thing is the perspective, which is that of a Senegalese maid (Mbissine Thérèse Diop) working for a white couple in France, as told by a Senegalese director (Ousmane Sembène). By using simple narration to reveal the maid's thoughts, he ensures that viewers will see her as a person, not as a dumb servant or as an object of pity, as differing extremes might. It seems so incredibly basic and obvious, but it's this recognition of humanity that's powerful, and unfortunately still such a relevant message today. Despite the obvious ways a story like this might go, Sembène is restrained in what he shows us, and a part of the film's strength is that there are moments when we can easily imagine worse with such a gap in power and wealth.

Over her new boyfriend's concerns, the young lady comes to France after having worked for the couple in Dakar. He's a little too grabby with his hands in one scene, but as he stands in front of a Patrice Lumumba 'Uhuru' poster in another, is correct in warning her that she may be treated like a slave in France. When she gets there she soon finds herself bored with being confined to mundane tasks in a small home, disappointed for having been deceived about what she would be doing there, lonely because of her isolation, and weary of being so openly spoken down to and angrily ordered around. In other words her reaction is what any intelligent person's reaction would be, but her employers don't see it that way. They think she's just lazy, and attribute her quietness with ignorance, casually likening her to an animal. When they entertain their friends, another way they take away her humanity is by speaking about her as if she's not there, and by critically sizing her up as some kind of exotic thing.

I loved the scenes in Senegal, and wished there had been more. I also liked the aspects of quiet dignity in poverty, and the brilliant ending scene. It is so pitch perfect that the initial response of white guilt is to turn to money, instead of empathizing or trying to understand. It might have been better fleshed out, but it's a very good movie as it is.

In Senegal, you've been waiting for a chance, to find a job that will improve your circumstance, then you find one you enjoy, look after a girl, and two boys, for a family who originate from France. When the people then move back, to their homeland, you're summoned to join them, and lend a hand, now you're cook, cleaner and servant, a skivvy slave, toiling emigrant, no illusion of the one who's in command. You endure abuse, and the constant criticism, but your boss is so devoid of altruism, there's no escape, there's no away out, inside you scream and shriek and shout, the only option that remains, involves incision.

Senegalese auteur Ousmane Sembene's feature debut, engraved in the film history as the first Sub-Saharan African feature film made by an African filmmaker. But the "very first"tag doesn't necessarily guarantee a masterpiece for its own sake, BLACK GIRL, recently restored to its original transfer with vintage graininess and monochrome sheen, running approximately 60 minutes, has been rammed down audience's throat more like an ardent manifesto than an artistic adventure.

Diouana (Diop) is a young Senegalese girl, has been working for a French couple as their child- minder in Dakar, when the couple is transferred to Antibes, they intend to continue hiring her, offers her a one-way ticket to Antibes living with them. Thrilled by the opportunity to come to France, Diouana arrives with high hopes, like any girl in her age, pining for a new life in a developed country, breathing the fresh air of the Western civilization and seeing a world beyond her imagination, only all turns out to be a dashed dream.

Upon arrival, Diouana surprisingly finds out that the couple's kids are not there, instead, she is requested to work as a maid, cooking, cleaning and all other trappings. As days go by, we are guided by Diouana's inner voice, she becomes increasingly disillusioned with misgivings, questions and reminiscences of her life in Dakar, eventually she realizes that she has been cheated and exploited, living like a prisoner in the apartment, France to her merely means her tiny bedroom and the kitchen, what is worse that she is illiterate, therefore she cannot even express her true feelings in letters to her mother in Dakar. What can she do enmeshed in such dire circumstances? Diouana plumps for the most radical way to lay bare her protest, ire and accusation against the stuck-up madame (Jelinek, a force of unapologetic monstrosity) and the aloof monsieur (a grotesquely- looking Fontaine), it is as searing as startling, she has other alternatives, but in Sembene's ideology, perhaps, this is the best tack to provoke a rude awakening.

Ultimately the film serves as Sembene's fervent anti-colonialism diatribe, a symbolic indigenous wooden mask relentlessly haunts the guilty party, where the poverty-stricken country holds its dignity in a defiant way, BLACK GIRL, also benefits from its unruffled frame compositions, marks the dawn of African cinema which finally finds its voice to speak volumes about the cinema- eschewing continent's own story, history and ethos, for that particular reason, Sembene's debut can promisingly function as a stepping stone and find its niche in a hallowed recess.

On the injustices one culture can do to another. The film is about an African woman who gets a job with a white family and agrees to follow them back to France, only to be disenheartened in the end. While, the production values were not great, the messages of this film are stronger than most major US motion pictures. The characters (especially the French) do seem to be a bit shallow, and don't have much depth to them. Yet, the theme of loneliness from displacement and cultural injustice ring powerfully loud in the end. An 8 out of 10.

Black Girl presents an allegory for European colonialism in Africa through the lens of a Senegalese woman who secures a job in France. Sembene makes careful directorial choices to emphasize the contrasts between Senegal and France and the divide between Diouana's expectations for France and the reality. One of these choices is the use of nonlinear time - the film opens with her arrival in France and shows her interactions with Madame, then goes back in time to when she secured the job in Senegal. The striking difference between these two times is Diouana's attitude. In Senegal, when she is offered the job she is overjoyed at the opportunity, especially since it involves taking care of kids. However, when she gets there, she doesn't see the kids, is told to do all the work around the house, and is berated by Madame for being lazy. Seeing Diouana's frustrating situation is more resonant in only realizing afterwards how excited she was for the job going in. Her body language is a world apart, as in France she never smiles and has no energy but in Senegal was beaming when she got the job, and was so excited to see what France was like. I also like Sembene's choice to have her inner monologue as narration, as that further serves to put the audience inside Diouana's head. Her perspective is essential to understanding the way she is completely devastated by her experience, and from the first scenes of the film we are put in her point of view as we look out the window onto France through her eyes. Madame presented it as a great opportunity for her to make money and do what she enjoys - be with children - but then doesn't give her what she promised and by the time she does, her condescension and demands have sucked all the life from Diouana. You can interpret the symbolism of the film in many ways, and mine may change, but my impression now is that the film symbolizes the way Europe seemed to offer to help African countries but really just exploited them for all their resources, denied them the opportunity promised to give the next generation a better life, and then saw it as a surprising, random, unfortunate event when the countries are even worse off. The exploitation element is made explicit by Diouana's narration at the end, where she talks about being done being a slave. The mask is another interesting symbol in the film, one of African culture. We see how Diouana shares it with the family initially but they then appropriate it and treat it as their own, and at the end of the film Monsieur is haunted by it as the legacy of his sins. Really smart and well layered, and with a poignant ending, Black Girl is an excellent allegory.