Rating: 4.5/5
Criterion Challenge 2023 | 9/52 | Black Lives Collection
That morning, I went to the square as usual. The others were there, and I sat down on the curb, as I did every day, to wait for destiny.
Diouana (Mbissine Thérèse Diop), a Senegalese woman, moves to France to care for a family’s children.
When she arrives at the airport, waves of white eyes watch her movement, hesitant and suspicious. Security marks her suitcase for inspection.
When Diouana arrives, she sees an African mask on the wall. The doors are closed, the Madame yells. She cooks and cleans. But where are the children?
For me, France is the kitchen, the living room, the bathroom, and my bedroom. Where are the people who live in this country?</blockquote> The Madame criticizes Diouana for dressing in nice clothes. She forces Diouana to wear an apron so it is clear to their dinner guests that she is the help. The hosts have her make rice and sell it to the guests as “genuine African cooking.” No surprise, they find the rice very spicy. When the guests decide to leave, they kiss Diouana on the cheeks, exclaiming, “They’ve never kissed a black girl before!” We get glimpses of her life before France, when she lived in Senegal, outside of Dakar. We learn how Diouana met Madame, who picked her on the street to be her maid. She gifted Madame the mask that hangs on their wall. In France, she expected to be a caregiver to the children, like in Dakar. They call her an animal but a “good maid.” Sharp, precise, and heartbreaking. I don’t have a historical understanding beyond France’s centuries-long occupation and enslavement of Senegal. We cannot pay off the debt of colonialism.
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