Director
Ousmane Sembène
Cast list
Mbissine Thérèse Diop Diouana
Anne-Marie Jelinek Madame (Anne-Marie Jelinek)
Robert Fontaine Monsieur
Momar Nar Sene Diouana’s Boyfriend
Ibrahima Boy Boy with Mask
Credits
Writing Credits: Ousmane Sembène
Cinematography: Christian Lacoste
Synopsis
A Senegalese woman is eager to find a better life abroad. She takes a job as a governess for a French family, but finds her duties reduced to those of a maid after the family moves from Dakar to the south of France. In her new country, the woman is constantly made aware of her race and mistreated by her employers. Her hope for better times turns to disillusionment and she falls into isolation and despair. The harsh treatment leads her to consider suicide the only way out.
Reviews
Reviews:
Roger Ebert, Black Girl/Borom Sarret, Roger Ebert Online
A.H. Weiler, Screen: 2 From Senegal: Feature and Short are at the New Yorker, The New York Times
Didion, The "Black Girl" speaks, 1966, Feminema Wordpress
Talibah Newman, La Noire De: An Understanding of the Film “Black Girl,” Yahoo Voices
Academic Articles:
Adesokan, Akin. “The Significance of Ousmane Sembène.” World Literature Today. 82.1 Jan.-Feb. 2008: 37-39. Jstor. Web. 14 Dec. 2013
Pallister, Janis. From “La Noire de. . .” to “Milk and Honey”: Portraits of the Alienated African Woman.” Mordern Language Studies (1992): 76-87. Print.
Mortimer, Robert. Ousman Sembene and the Cinema of Decolonization.” African Arts. 5.3 (1972): 26, 27, 64, 68, 84. Print.