The French court drama Saint Omer by Alice Diop was awarded the Grand Prixfor best film at Film Fest Gent. The Ukrainian Klondike and the Costa Rican-Belgian co-production Tengo suenos electricos receive an honorable mention,while the Swiss Three Winter receives the Georges Delerue Award for bestmusic.
Ewoud CeulemansOctober 21, 202220:30
Six years ago, French director Alice Diop attended the trial of FabienneKabou, a young woman accused of murdering her 15-month-old baby in 2013. Up tothat point, Diop had only made documentaries, but the Kabou case provided theinspiration for her first fiction film, Saint Omer. It was awarded the GrandPrix for best film on Friday evening at the 49th edition of Film Fest Gent.This price is linked to a distribution premium of 10,000 euros and a mediacampaign of 12,000 euros, of which 5,000 euros in cash The morning. Afterthe documentary Petite fille and the dementia drama Vortex it is the thirdFrench film in a row to win the top prize in Ghent.
Saint Omer mainly takes place in court, where writer Rama (Kayije Kagame)follows the trial of Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanga): a young woman fromSenegal who studies philosophy in France and becomes pregnant by an elderlyFrenchman. She hides the pregnancy and the birth, and deliberately lets thebaby drown in the sea. During her trial, she claims she was bewitched andcursed.
Guslagie Malanga in director Alice Diop’s ‘Saint Omer’.Image Film Fest Gent
The strength of Saint Omer is that Diop gradually merges her two maincharacters. Both Rama and Laurence have a troubled relationship with theirmother and with their own role as a mother – Rama also hides her pregnancyduring the process – and feel like an outsider in France. Diop follows thelawsuit in a measured, almost distant style: the shots are held for so longand the camera is so still that you, as a viewer, get the feeling that you arestaring at the characters uncomfortably.
The jury was “captured by the rigueur and the modesty in both the directingand the performances in this exceptional film. The question of what we haveinherited from the previous generation and what we pass on to the nextresonates on many levels and is intelligently woven into a drama that gripsthe throat and resonates for a long time to come.”
Saint Omer previously won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival, whereDiop also won the Best Debut award. The film is the French Oscar entry forbest foreign film, so it has to compete with Lukas Dhonts close , but alsowith many other films from the competition at Film Fest Gent. TheAnachronistic Sissi Drama Corsage is the Austrian entry, the current one_Klondike_ set against the backdrop of pro-Russian unrest in the Donbas regionin 2014, is the Ukrainian candidate. Klondike by director Maryna Er Gorbach,received an honorable mention from the jury at Film Fest Gent, just like the__ coming of age movie Tengo suenos electricos a Costa Rican-Belgian co-production by Valentina Maurel.
Finally, there is the Swiss Oscar entry, Three Winter by Michael Koch: aquirky directed drama set in a mountain village. That film, with a score byTobias Koch and Jannik Giger, was awarded the Georges Delerue Award for bestmusic in Ghent. In that score, the sacred choral singing stands out the most.”The performances and the framing of the singers, as if they were telling aGreek tragedy, fascinated us and the music is perfectly attuned to the whole”,the jury found.
This year’s jury consisted of filmmaker and former Grand Prix winner ClioBarnard, actor Welket Bungué, director Alexandre Koberidze, editor NicoLeunen, composer Daniel Hart and filmmaker Nathalie Álvarez Mesén.
The choir in Michael Koch’s ‘Drii Winter’.Image Film Fest Gent.
Saint Omer hits theaters on November 30.
**Discover the film selection of De Morgen during Film Fest Gent. Buy yourtickets via demorgen.be/filmfestgent and enjoy a free drink in the Film Fest