The eloquently composed “Our Father, the Satan,” a bleak, slow-burn character research, begins, fairly actually, upon reflection. Towards a window, the reserved Marie (Babetida Sadjo) smokes and sits by her favourite hang-out, a bar serviced by the winsome Arnaud (Franck Saurel). Within the window body, her visage takes a blurred, ghostly look. Reflections that grant the viewer a lens into the topic are a recurring visible theme in “Our Father, The Satan,” denoting the vacant manner individuals see themselves.
In author/director Ellie Foumbi’s function directorial debut, the psychologically and emotionally scarred Marie works in an understaffed assisted residing dwelling as a chef, serving an array of regularly rotating retirees. Amongst them is Jeanne (Martine Amisse), Marie’s mentor and the aged former head of a culinary college. Jeanne grants Marie nice satisfaction at any time when she tastes the younger chef’s cooking, her compliments inspiring the few instances we see Marie smile with out reservation. Jeanne thinks so extremely of her pupil she bequeaths her household’s cozy cottage to Marie. The reward is sufficient to give the overworked chef a modicum of peaceable relaxation amid the abode’s woodland environment.
With well-articulated visible language, Foumbi and her cinematographer Tinx Chan (“Starring Jerry as Himself”) nimbly stroll a effective line between probing and withholding. Take the nightmarish introduction of the visiting Father Patrick (Souleymane Sy Savane): the digicam first captures him from the neck down as he leads the aged people of this dwelling in prayer. Marie acknowledges his presence pointedly, not by sight. Emanating from the house of an open door, she hears his voice, masterfully muffled by the sound mixing to recommend a distant reminiscence. When she does bodily see him, he’s oppressively backlit, so we solely see the black define of his physique.
Father Patrick’s arrival stirs concern inside Marie: She faints upon seeing him. Certainly this Father Patrick isn’t Sogo, an abusive guerilla soldier she knew in Guinea? And the way did he discover her within the mountainous area of Bagnères-de-Luchon, France? It’s not till she notices Father Patrick’s tick—he tosses his meals in his spoon earlier than consuming—that she knocks him out with a frying pan and kidnaps him to Jeanne’s cottage.
Fortunately, Foumbi doesn’t play the “is he or isn’t he card” for too lengthy. Midway by way of the movie, we’ve got our reply. However what or who he’s—a metaphor for Devil or a reflection of Marie—pales in comparison with what he conjures inside Marie, a West African Black girl who feels bodily misplaced in a predominantly white nation. For 20 years, ever since she was 12 years previous, Marie has denied the type of romantic attachment just like the one Arnaud pines to have together with her. She has additionally held again any sense of self-pity or empathy. You perceive Marie’s forlornness with the eager manner Foumbi leverages house; the filmmakers go for full photographs of Marie alone in giant rooms, her physique positioned on the outer third of the body, her reflection in home windows all the time blurred.
For “Our Father, the Satan,” forgiveness looms giant. Foumbi’s complicated script asks if some acts are past absolution. It’s clear that Marie doesn’t simply despise Father Patrick; she hates the faith he finds mercy in, too. She additionally despises herself. Sadjo performs with Marie’s inner impossibilities and exterior brick partitions with misleading ease. It appears easy as a result of the distinctive crafts (evocative wine-colored lighting and an unnerving rating) supplied by an assured director like Foumbi can assist to cover the actress’ work. Sadjo additionally retains up her finish of the discount by using her expressive face to ship shock, remorse, and ache to the refined palette and by exerting a inflexible physicality, which may freeze and immobilize not simply her character however the very temperature of a scene.
The movie’s remaining shot, a stark picture of Father Patrick and Marie, engages with the script’s conflicting sentiments, trusting the viewers to sit down with the story’s troublesome stability. Whereas some scenes might be tightened by a few frames, that qualm is lowered to a quibble within the face of such total good development. Foumbi’s “Our Father, The Satan” manages to take overused themes like trauma and grief and imbue them with each side of their respective which means.
Now taking part in in theaters.