In the same spirit she was happy to accompany the family on their return visit to France supposing that she would enjoy aspects of this. We learn that initially Diouana was keen to work for a French family, both for the economic and the supposed social benefits. The flashbacks are provided by Diouana, though her interior monologues that accompany these are not vocalised but presented by a narrative voice.
The film presents this narrative both in scenes of the film present and in a series of flashbacks. We the audience accompany Diouana on her journeys from the slums of Dakar to the family’s home on the Riviera and to her last tragic decision. Diouana’s journey is also one of consciousness as she experiences the casual and less-casual racism by the Madame (Anne-Marie Jelinek). The narrative follows the journey of Diouana (Thérèse Diop) with the French family for whom she works as a maid on a holiday trip back to France. It is available in the UK from Aya Distribution, who specialise in African cinema. This version is French with English subtitles. The restored film has been transferred onto a DCP and it was from this format that it was screened at the 2015 Il Cinema Ritrovato. Now the film has been restored under the auspices of The Film’s Foundation World Cinema Project. The couple of times that I was able to see the film it was on a rather worn 16mm print.
This was Ousmane Sembène’s third film and his first of feature length.