Delphine reclines on a daybed in her bright apartment in Belgium, an empty crib beside her. “I started to work the streets like crazy,” she says, matter-of-factly recounting her life story. “Selling my body.”
Delphine, who is only identified by her first name, is quick-witted, engaging, passionate, and intense. Born and raised in Cameroon, at 30, she has survived a series of personal catastrophes. Her mother died in childbirth, and her father did little to care for his children. She was raped at 13, became a mother soon after, and supported herself with sex work on the streets of Douala. Now, she lives with a Belgian husband three times her age and their children, estranged from much of her family. Unable to find a job, Delphine styles hair at home and still turns to sex work from time to time to have some independence and money of her own.
Like Rosine Mbakam’s previous documentary, the acclaimed Chez Jolie Coiffure, Delphine’s Prayers is shot in a single room. Along with her debut feature, The Two Faces of a Bamileke Woman, Mbakam’s films offer an intimate glimpse into the lives of women whose stories are rarely seen on camera. (Rosine Mbakam, Belgium/Cameroon, 2021, 91 min.) In Cameroon Pidgin, French, English with English subtitles