Saartjie "Sarah" Baartman was a black South African woman who was put on display like a sideshow freak as the Hottentot Venus in early 19th-century Europe. Award-winning director Abdellatif Kechiche (Blue Is the Warmest Color) dramatizes her short life and humiliating exploitation in this powerful and provocative 2010 drama. Where Kechiche's earlier films tackled the lives of immigrants and minorities in contemporary France, this one jumps back two centuries to explore the ordeal of an African woman in Europe who is treated as less than human. Saartjie (played by first-time actress Yahima Torres) was not a slave but a South African Khoikhoi tribeswoman turned servant who agreed to partner with her boss (Andre Jacobs) to play an exotic wild woman performing "savage" dances at carnival sideshows. Her notoriety spread and she appeared in the society salons of London and Paris, where she was ogled, fondled, and presented as a subhuman specimen. Kechiche coolly observes her exploitation in freak show performances in which Baartman is ostensibly a partner, but playing out sexual and racial stereotypes that Europeans use to "prove" her racial inferiority. Kechiche makes an effort to show Baartman being dehumanized without exploiting her and he lets us see her sadness and loss as she plays her role, but mostly she's a voiceless enigma who seems to passively accept her place. A provocative and often disturbing film, Black Venus captures the ugliness of exploitation and the misery of Baartman’s life. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)
Black Venus
Arrow, 162 min., in French & English w/English subtitles, not rated, Blu-ray: $39.99 Volume 33, Issue 4
Black Venus
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