Acclaimed documentarian Alice Diop (We, La permanence), known for focusing her work on the injustices and intimate stories of immigrant communities, makes her narrative debut with Saint Omer.
Based on the real life 2016 French court case of Fabienne Kabou, for which Diop attended the trial, the film follows Rama (Kayije Kagame) a pregnant novelist attending the trial of a woman accused of killing her 15-month-old child after neglecting them at the beach. Rama hopes to take the tragic events heard in court and write a modern retelling of the Greek Medea myth.
As Rama hears tales of a life of isolation, she begins to become anxious about her own life and pregnancy.