Familiar Spirits

Black Girl (French: La noire de..., lit. 'Black girl of...') is a 1966 drama film, written and directed by Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembène in his feature directorial debut. It is based on a short story from Sembène's 1962 collection Voltaique, which was in turn inspired by a real life incident. It stars Mbissine Thérèse Diop as Diouana, a young Senegalese woman who moves from her native Dakar to Antibes, France, to work for a French couple. In France, Diouana hopes to continue her former job as a nanny and anticipates a new cosmopolitan lifestyle. However, upon her arrival in Antibes, Diouana experiences harsh treatment from the couple, who force her to work as a servant. She becomes increasingly aware of her constrained and alienated situation and starts to question her life in France. Black Girl is often considered the first Sub-Saharan African film by an African filmmaker to receive international attention. Although it was poorly received by Western film critics upon its initial release, by the 2010s it came to be seen as a classic of world cinema.