La Noire de…, also known as Black Girl (The original French title is literally translated as The Black Girl of…) is a 1966 film directed by Ousmane Sembène. The film is often considered the first Sub-Saharan African film by an African filmmaker to receive international attention.

The film is based on Sembène’s own writing. Though he previously directed two shorts: Borom Sarret and Niaye, Black Girl was his first feature-length film. In Movies as Politics, Jonathan Rosenbaum makes a case for Senegal writer-director Ousmane Sembene’s La Noire de… as the symbolic genesis of sub-Saharan African filmmaking, at least to the extent that the authorship belonged to a born and bred African.

The film centers on Diouana (Mbissine Thérèse Diop), a young Senegalese woman who moves from Dakar, Senegal, to Antibes, France, to work for a rich French couple (Anne-Marie Jelinek and Robert Fontaine). In France, Diouana hopes to continue her former job as nanny, and looks forward to a cosmopolitan lifestyle. However, upon arrival in Antibes, the couple begins to treat Diouana more harshly and she is forced to work in the capacity of a servant. Diouana becomes increasingly aware of her constrained and alienated situation.

Rating: