How Long Is “Desiree”?

This grim Dutch drama, filmed in New York with English-speaking actors, is based on a real story that occurred in 1980. The film opens as a black mother in an psychotic state believes her baby to be possessed. She takes the child and burns it alive in the oven. The woman then begins roaming the street carrying an imaginary baby. As she wanders, flashbacks of her life appear. Her oppressive mother dominated her. The girl endured a series of her mother's "uncles." The girl, then gets involved with the True Confessors, an extreme, conservative Christian group. When the girl gets pregnant, she is thrown out of the church. The pressures of her lonely life become too much and her sanity begins slipping away.