The Heart of Madame Sabali


The Heart of Madame Sabali is a 2015 Canadian tragicomedy film co-written and directed by Ryan McKenna. It stars Marie Brassard, Amadou & Mariam, Youssef Camara and Paul Ahmarani.
The film won the Focus Grand Prize for Canadian/Québec Film at the 2015 Festival de nouveau Cinéma.

Plot

Jeannette is a white Québécois woman with a severe heart condition living in a suburb of Montreal. After undergoing transplant surgery where she receives the heart of a Malian woman named Madame Sabali, she begins to experience flashbacks of her donor's brutal murder. Soon thereafter, Jeannette becomes friends with Madame Sabali's son Chibale, who believes she is the reincarnation of his mother.

Response

The film won the Grand Prix Focus at the 2015 Festival du nouveau cinéma, and Brassard received a Vancouver Film Critics Circle nomination for Best Actress in a Canadian Film at the Vancouver Film Critics Circle Awards 2015.