Press Release Criterion Press Release: Saint Omer (2022) (Blu-ray) (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

​

Bringing a documentarian’s sense of open-ended inquiry to her first narrative feature, writer-director Alice Diop constructs a morally and emotionally layered courtroom drama unlike any other. When she travels to Saint-Omer, France, to attend the trial of a young Senegalese woman (Guslagie Malanda) accused of murdering her infant daughter, novelist Rama (Kayije Kagame) finds herself shaken to the core by a case that proves to have profound resonances with her own life. Interweaving complex themes of mother-daughter bonds, immigrant alienation, and postcolonial trauma into a piercing portrait of two mysteriously connected women, Diop forgoes mere questions of guilt and innocence in order to plumb the unsettling unknowability of the human soul.

FILM INFO​

• France
• 2022
• 123 minutes
• Color
• 1.85:1
• French
• Spine #1212
  
  

  DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES​

  • New 2K digital master, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
  • New interviews with director Alice Diop
  • Conversation between Diop and author Hélène Frappat
  • Conversation between Diop and filmmaker Dee Rees from a 2023 episode of The Director’s Cut – A DGA Podcast
  • Trailer
  • New English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: An essay by critic Jennifer Padjemi
    
    New design by Michael Boland
    
    March 26, 2024

 

[Ronald Epstein]

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[titch]

And I just received the UK blu-ray today A fantastic drama. Of course I'll get the Criterion.

Best films of 2023 in the UK: No 7 – Saint Omer

Alice Diop’s award-winning courtroom drama doubles as an unsentimental study in empathy with one of the year’s most mesmerising performances

www.theguardian.com

 

[titch]

Saw the Criterion blu-ray this evening. An astonishing film. I was completely mesmerised by the visuals - projected onto a large screen, the images of the faces are extraordinary; the picture is reference quality. And the excellent essay included with Criterion's disc makes this very powerful film even more thought-provoking: the film is based on a real-life 2013 case. And the amazing closing argument by the defence-attorney was lifted from the actual trial. As a gynaecologist/obstetrician, I can attest to the authenticity of the film. A much more riveting movie than Anatomy Of A Fall but very interesting to have two current French films concerning murder trials in the French legal system - with totally different approaches. Saint Omer is the one that will stick with me.