La Noire de …

For Diouana, a young woman from Dakar, the dream of a sophisticated life with a white family that so many her age dream of seems to be coming true. She travels with Madame to the French Riviera, where she arrives in bitter reality as a housemaid and nanny. Whether it's attending the lords' fine dinners or cleaning the flat - she, who is little more than a “modern” slave, will never belong. But Diouana resists ... As Sembène was unable to use direct sound for technical reasons, he emphasises the speechlessness of his protagonist by having her thoughts spoken off-screen - in French!
Ignatiy Vishnevetsky: ‘No other national or cultural cinema has begun as self-confidently as Senegal with Sembène's LA NOIRE DE ...’
(Florian Widegger)

Newly restored version

Tue 11.3.: With a lecture by Arno Sonderegger (Institute for African Studies, University of Vienna)