As part of the BFI’s commitment to screening Big Screen Classics, last week they showed Black Girl (La Noire de…), a 1966 film from the father of African cinema, Ousmane Sembène. The feature film, which addresses colonialism, racial alienation and exploitation, remains poignant today.

As an active member of the French Communist Party, Ousmane Sembène believed that cinema could reach audiences beyond the educated (literate) elite. Originally a novelist, he turned to filmmaking in the 1960s. His Communist beliefs also led him to turn a critical eye towards Africans themselves, and specifically the elite, which he believed abused their new-found power post-independence to exploit their compatriots. Black Girl is firmly rooted this context, and specifically Senegal’s 1960 independence, but focuses on the continual struggle against neocolonial structures, laying bare the lingering effects of French colonialism.

The film follows Diouana (Mbissine Thérèse Diop), a young Senegalese woman who leaves Dakar to work as a nanny for a white French couple in Antibes. Initially full of hope, she envisions a glamorous life in France. However, reality quickly turns grim as her role shifts from child caretaker to domestic servant, confined to the apartment, stripped of autonomy, and subjected to dehumanizing treatment by her employers. Her gradual realization of this entrapment leads to a devastating emotional unraveling.

Sembène’s storytelling is precise and unflinching. He uses minimal dialogue, relying instead on Diouana’s internal monologue (delivered in voiceover) to express her growing sense of disillusionment. The contrast between her lively, hopeful demeanor in Dakar and her silent suffering in France underscores the brutality of her circumstances.

Black Girl was screened as part of the Big Screen Classics series at the BFI Southbank, also showing on 24 February and 6 March 2025.