The true story of Saartje Baartman, a black South African worker who moves to London with her master in the early 19th century. Although she dreams of being an artist, once in Europe she is exploited as a sideshow attraction due to her large buttocks and genitalia.
Acting
Yahima Torres embodies Saartjie with devastating, wordless resistance.
Direction
Kechiche forces you to witness what history sanitized.
Production
Period detail that makes aristocratic salons feel like abattoirs.
Director
Abdellatif Kechiche
Yahima Torres
Saartjie Baartman
André Jacobs
Hendrick Caezar
Olivier Gourmet
Réaux
Elina Löwensohn
Jeanne
François Marthouret
Georges Cuvier
Jean-Christophe Bouvet
Charles Mercailler
Jonathan Pienaar
Alexander Dunlop
Rémi Martin
First brothel's customer
Jean-Jacques Moreau
Henri de Blainville
Didier Bourguignon
Senior Naturalist Assistant
Ralph Amoussou
Harry, first servant
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Saartjie's remains were displayed in Paris until 1974; her body wasn't repatriated to South Africa until 2002, nearly two centuries after her death.
The 'Hottentot Venus' became a template for scientific racism—her physique 'proved' Black inferiority to generations of European anatomists who never questioned their own methods.
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