Saint Omer: from tragic news to film
The movie Saint Omer by Alice Diop, released in 2022, is directly inspired by a tragic story that made headlines in France in 2013: the Fabienne Kabou case. This drama captured the public’s attention and raised profound questions about motherhood, mental health and legal responsibility.
The film, like the case that inspired it, highlights the complexity of emotions and motivations behind a crime as disturbing as infanticide. At the 2022 Venice Film Festival, Alice Diop’s feature film won (her first as a fiction film). the Silver Lion. It also won the César for best first work.
In an almost documentary fashion, Alice Diop takes us into this trial through the eyes of a novelist named Rama (Kayije Kagame) who witnesses the trial of Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanda), accused of killing his 15-year-old daughter. During the course of the testimonies, Rama’s certainties waver.
The Fabienne Kabou case
The Fabienne Kabou case is that of a Senegalese woman, a brilliant intellectual, convicted of killing her 15-month-old daughter, Adélaïde, abandoning her on a beach in Berck-sur-Mer, in November 2013. high tide drowned the next morning from a shrimp fisherman. This crime profoundly shocked public opinion, not only for the brutality of the facts, but also for the mystery surrounding the mother’s motivations.
After her arrest, Fabienne Kabou immediately admitted the facts, claiming that she had been under the influence of occult forces and witchcraft. However, investigations revealed that he had carefully planned his act, in particular by consulting tide and train times to get to Berck. The process highlighted a personality complex and troubledoscillating between a superior intellect (an IQ of 135) and deep mystical beliefs. She explained that dark forces took control of her actions, leading her to kill her daughter.
Fabienne Kabou was sentenced in 2016 to 20 years of criminal imprisonment for this murder. However, during the appeal process in 2017, his conviction was reduced to 15 years in prison. The Northern Assize Court confirmed the modification of her sentence at the material time, due to psychiatric disorders, but confirmed that she was still responsible for her actions.
This trial has raised many questions about the degree of responsibility of Fabienne Kabou, but also about the cultural and personal pressures placed on women, particularly mothers. Her defense, in particular, argued that she was prey to mystical delusions that pushed her to commit the irreparable.
A story that profoundly affected Alice Diop
Alice Diop was deeply affected by this story and followed part of the trial. His film focuses less on meticulous reconstruction of facts than on exploration moral and psychological dilemmas that such a tragedy can cause.
In Saint OmerAlice Diop manages to represent a society faced with a mother who has committed the unthinkable and invites viewers to reflect on the concepts of guilt, judgment and empathy. Far from condemning, the film seeks to understand the incomprehensible, highlighting universal themes such as parental pressure, social exclusion and personal beliefs.
Source: Cine Serie
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