OUR FATHER, THE DEVIL (MON PÈRE, LE DIABLE)
West Coast Premiere
US CINEMA | MIND THE GAP
US 2022, 108 min, Director: Ellie Foumbi
A complex work of inescapable power, this provocative debut, which won the audience award for Best Narrative Feature at the Tribeca Film Festival, announces Cameroonian-American filmmaker Ellie Foumbi as a major talent to watch. With a star-making turn by Babetida Sadjo at its center, Our Father, the Devil is a beguiling interrogation of trauma and its lingering aftereffects. Years after violent conflict shattered her life in Africa, Marie Cissé (Sadjo) has found refuge working as the head chef in a retirement home in small-town France. She isn’t prepared for the flood of emotions that erupt when a new priest, Father Patrick (Souléymane Sy Savané), arrives at her workplace and she recognizes him as a terrifying figure from her traumatic past. Foumbi holds her characters — and audience — to account, diving deep into the darkest corners of the human heart, and emerging with an intellectually stimulating dissection of revenge, power, victimhood, and the redemptive potential of love. —Wilfred Okiche
In French with English subtitles
Guest expected: writer-director Ellie Foumbi
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