Black Girl (1966)

"Black Girl [Original title: La noire de...]" (1966) is a French-Senegalese arthouse drama film written and directed by pioneering African filmmaker Ousmane Sembène. The movie is a simple but stark reality of a Senegalese woman who left home with a white couple with promises of work in France but instead lives as a housemaid in isolation. The film's star is Mbissine Thérèse Diop, who appeared in her first film. Arthouse films rely heavily on symbolism that can go past casual movie watchers' attention. There isn't any action or intense dialogue, but more so the narrative of a woman suffering within herself and by her employer's bigoted behaviors.

Director: Ousmane Sembène

Writer: Ousmane Sembène

Starring Mbissine Thérèse Diop, Anne-Marie Jelinek, Robert Fontaine, Momar Nar Sene, Ibrahima Boy

Storyline

A young Senegalese woman moves to France to work for a wealthy white couple but soon finds out that life in the tiny apartment is a prison, mentally and physically.