White Material

White Material (15) 2010 – 102 minutes

White Material is an intense but interesting perspective from French Director, Claire Denis, on the effects of colonialism amidst a war-torn but un-named, country in the heart of Africa.
We are quickly thrust into the daily lives of the Vial family - white, coffee plantation owners from France –and their interaction with their local black community and the labourers they hire to harvest the coffee. We are shown the imminent breakdown of society; armed bandits wandering the land extorting and intimidating; orphaned children building child armies; a ruthless army struggling to regain power.

At the heart of the plantation is Maria Vial (Isabelle Huppert), daughter of owner, Henri (Michel Subor). Tireless in her efforts to harvest her crop, she simply refuses to acknowledge the collapse of her world; pillaging armed bandits are dismissed as “looking for food”; the flight of her own workers is seen as disloyal; her own son’s increasingly disruptive behaviour is met with disbelief and incredulity. Ignoring the pleas of her ex- husband and advice of her embassy to abandon the plantation and return to France, she struggles on, increasingly isolated.
Obsessed with her land, with her harvest and with her appearance, she fails to notice that her personal life is equally devastated; the by now, semi-psychotic son, Manuel (Nicolas Duvauchelle) with whom she can no longer communicate and the ex- husband, Andre (Christophe Lambert) from whom she has become totally estranged; the father whom she has never understood. Almost from the start we reject Maria and her lifestyle; from the relentless pursuit of the illusory harvest to the treatment of her workers, she simply refuses to compromise; to the land, to the people and even to her family.

Huppert is excellent, the archetypal colonial. Haughty and arrogant with an innate refusal for self examination – “I don’t want to talk about my son” she says on multiple occasions. More could perhaps have been made of Lambert, who shows only touches of his potential and equally Duvauchelle, whose dialogue is limited but whose collapse into madness is powerfully compelling. Similarly, the arrival of a wounded but popular rebel known as “the Boxer” (Isaach de Bankole )is underexplored but make no mistake; this is Huppert’s film from start to finish.
Director Claire Denis, better known for “Chocolat” (1988), unfolds events retrospectively, interrupting the timeline with numerous flashbacks, distinguishable only via Maria’s ever-changing wardrobe. Denis grew up in Cameroon, the daughter of a French civil servant, and treats her material knowledgeably exploiting the sounds and sights of the African continent particularly well.

Verdict
Interesting and thought-provoking. 6/10

Dick Morgan
July 2010