La noire de… [Black Girl] (1966)

(On Cable TV, July 2020) Movies don’t have to be long to pack a wallop, and La noire de… has one heck of a final gut-punch even after just 55 minutes. The story of a young woman who leaves her Senegalese village to go work (under false pretence) for a family in France, it’s an eloquent demonstration of racism and alienation with a very powerful ending even today. Writer-director Ousmane Sembène is absolutely merciless in its depiction of French colonialism, through the device of domestic racism. He can also depend on a raw performance from Mbissine Thérèse Diop in the lead role. La noire de… is said to be the first sub-Saharan film, and it’s quite a statement. You will be thankful that it doesn’t even last an hour: it would be hard to take more.