NOTRE ÉTRANGÈRE is a heartbreaking attempt to capture how it feels to be caught between two worlds that pull on a single identity. Shifting between France and Burkina Faso, the film primarily follows Amy (Dorylia Calmel) as she travels from France to try and trace her Burkinabé mother.

As Amy interacts with her aunt in Boko, she look and feels like isolated figure: adrift from not only the environment and culture around her but the people who should be her family. Struggling to connect through the language barrier and familial furtiveness, her story is juxtaposed with that of a Burkinabé cleaner, Mariam (Assita Ouédraogo), teaching a middle-class French woman the Dioula language.

Calmel frequently cuts a lonely figure in director Sarah Bouyain’s shots around the town of Boko, which work well in conveying a woman adrift in a familiar but distant world. The transition to Burkina Faso in her strand is intentionally immediate. It is not obvious until she is on the streets of Boko we are no longer in France – the worlds she is trying to reconcile are distant and remote, but impossible to disentangle from one another. The other end of this thread is Mariam, at first a seemingly tacked on subplot. However, it quickly becomes apparent it offers are valuable flip side to the coin and arguably offers a potentially deeper story, as well bringing a background theme to the fore later in the film. Given the short running time (82 minutes) it’s a shame Mariam’s role isn’t explored further. This isn’t to take away from the story in Burkina Faso, however, which is excellently driven forward as Amy ramps up the attempts to find out the fate and secrets of her mother. Calmel does an excellent job displaying the emotions that Amy’s situation and quest bring.

Although not necessarily the most uplifting film, NOTRE ÉTRANGÈRE uses a very personal tale to examine universal themes that many can relate to beyond those with African backgrounds, and the continent’s people and diaspora. The Cambridge African Film Festival will do an excellent job of showcasing this to a UK audience, who will relate to the characters on screen no matter their background.

NOTRE ÉTRANGÈRE (THE PLACE IN BETWEEN) is playing at the Arts Picturehouse in Cambridge on Monday 7th November at 6.30pm, and will be followed by a Q&A with lead actress Dorylia Calmel. You can buy tickets HERE.