Culture | Untold stories

New films in France tackle race, gender, exile and belonging

“Saint Omer” and “Tirailleurs” also examine the complex link between Senegal and France

Image: SRAB Films
|PARIS

Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanda, pictured) is a young Senegalese woman studying philosophy in Paris. One winter evening, she takes a train to the cold northern French coast, checks in to a hotel for the night, walks to the beach on a rising tide and leaves her baby to drown. The tiny corpse is found by a fisherman, who at first mistakes the child for a seal.

This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Unheard voices”

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