Portrait de Ludmilla en Nina Simone

She is a figure of tragedy, a statue that sings. When she stares at the audience at the start of concerts, everyone feels watched, accused, she imposes silence, dread. Then she laughs, and begins.

Nina Simone, born into a poor family in North Carolina, could have become a classical concert performer, but she was black, and she mourned this blocked destiny all her life. She later became a leading figure in the civil rights struggle, and a friend of James Baldwin. There's a dual nature to her: melancholy and combative, which can be found in her music, where the blues always shines through, even behind the commitment of hymns.

A portrait of her, like a documentary, an interview. A sung portrait in which the model merges with her subject, and thus a sung portrait of Ludmilla Dabo as Nina Simone.