Black Girl (1966)

Name: Black Girl (1966)
Genre: Drama
Released: January 12, 1969
Duration: 65 min
Rating: 75

1969

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Generally favorable reviews based on 7 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 8 Ratings

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7.5

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7.5	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 8 Ratings

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Movie Details & Credits

New Yorker Films | Release Date: January 12, 1969 | Not Rated

Summary: A black girl from Senegal becomes a servant in France.

Director: Ousmane Sembene

Genre(s): Drama

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 65 min

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Critic Reviews

100

Josh Larsen

Black Girl gathers a forceful and lasting emotional power. Read full review

100

Moira Macdonald

It’s a remarkable personal-is-political drama, set in barely postcolonial Senegal and France. Read full review

Eric Henderson

Decolonization in Black Girl isn't only a myth, but also a myth that actually strengthens the consumerist caste systems. Read full review

Melissa Anderson

Formally spartan, Ousmane Sembène's Black Girl (1966) is dense with cool fury. Read full review

Richard Brody

Ousmane Sembène, in his first feature film, from 1966—which is also widely considered the first feature made by an African—distills a vast range of historical crises and frustrated ambitions into an intimate, straightforwardly realistic drama. Read full review

Roger Ebert

The weakness of Black Girl is in its slow, journeyman style; one feels that Sembene learned filmmaking by making this film. It also suffers from a kind of primitive naturalism, as if the script were by James T. Farrell out of Theodore Dreiser. Every motive is spelled out in unnecessary detail, and little attempt is made to get into the minds of the characters. Read full review

A. H. Weiler

[Mr. Sembène's] sadly pensive story of a young Dakar girl hired as a governess for a white couple's three children appears unevenly weighted in favor of Mr. Sembène's dolorous thesis. Read full review

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joelmpa

Feb 11, 2019

A very powerful film, providing an African view, qua 1966, of the aftermath of colonialism. The central performance is compelling. And the writer/director Sembene was one of the most important voices of his generation.

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