A portrait of domestic slavery, of African fetishism, of class and race disparity. Diouana is treated in a subhuman manner, shown off at dinner parties as this token African prize, and then berated for not working hard enough at a job she never accepted to do in the first place. Her "mistress" complains about Diouana's mood and appearance equally, but conflicting in wanting her to be "appreciative" of her position and to also dress appropriately according to her class status. What it boils down to is living in poverty and living in this form of domestic slavery are one in the same. The only difference is when one works to survive in poverty, it is only for their sake and…

Colonialism does not end with independence. When physical suppression ends, cultural suppression lingers on far longer - maybe forever. Once the myth of hierarchy has been sown, the damage is done. Black Girl shows this. Here, a young girl buys into the dream of France: the civilised world of better people, a place beyond what she knows.

She's from Senegal, Dakar to be exact, picked up off of the street by a French family because - well - because she seemed the most submissive. He ability to be un-intrusive positions her where they want her, and symbolises what colonisers want from the colonised. So, she is picked up and brought back, full of joy at the prospect of employment -…

51/100

Incredibly powerful ending (by which I mean the epilogue—husband bringing the mask to Dakar) achieves a haunting poetry that the body of the film lacks. Or perhaps it's more accurate to note that most of Black Girl falls into my personal blindspot regarding straightforward depictions of abuse/oppression/subjugation/etc. With few exceptions, there's just insufficient complexity in these scenarios for my taste, and while I can appreciate what a radical political statement this film was (and, sadly, to some extent still is), there's neither enjoyment nor illumination in watching someone get gradually beaten down to the point where she decides to cut her own throat. Sembène makes Diouana angrier and more openly defiant than a typical victim—even her suicide is essentially…

Director and writer Sembène Ousmane is considered to be the “father of African cinema” and I can see why. An interesting fact is that, at the time, Senegal had recently declared independence from French colonial rule in 1960 and, supposedly, before such an event, Africans in the French colonies were forbidden to make their own films. Perhaps this ban would be exactly because they feared that films like Black Girl would create a certain revolt, even if only for artistic exhibition.

Race, identity, and colonial legacy in a world marked by historical injustice is a very simplified way to describe even for this story of only 60 minutes, Black Girl is a searing indictment of the dehumanizing effects of colonialism…