White Material (Wednesday, December 8, 2010) (155)

White Material is a very interesting, very difficult film by the great French filmmaker Claire Denis. In it, she examines white people in Africa, an idea she looked at once before in her first film, Chocolat, but this treatment is different from that one. In that film, we saw how cruel and arbitrary whites were to blacks in colonial Africa, particularly considering they were the outsiders. We saw how capricious and temporary their experience on the continent was. I

n this film, however, we see the opposite: We see how there is a small minority of whites who now consider themselves Africans, who have lived on and worked the land for generations and care for the well being of all the people who live there.

Set in a West African country in the present day, the film shows the experiences of Maria Vial (Isabelle Huppert), the oldest daughter of a family on a coffee plantation. There is a civil war burning its way through the jungle of the land and gangs of child soldiers are forcing the village people out. They are most interested in the Vial farm, because they see it as their land, the land of the natives, not the white post-colonialists. Maria resolves to not leave her land, which she sees as part of her blood, more than just an accident of birth and has to fend off the onslaught by the bloody soldiers.

This film is a beautiful Judith story, where Maria has to cut off the advancing army by decapitating the head. Denis brings this idea up early by closely associating Maria with the color red and showing decapitated livestock throughout her travels. This is an elegant and subtle touch and really a wonderful thing.

Sewn through the whole film is a wonderful tapestry of gorgeous shots of the countryside and land of Africa. These transitional shots help to convey emotion and lead us to better understand Maria's love and defense of her land. Sure it would be easier for her to leave, but she loves this place, the way she would love her mother, the way biblical people loved their tribes and their land, so she has to stay. (Credit should go to Yves Cape for the wonderful cinematography and brilliant use of color.)

This film is something that could easily be watched and enjoyed on a very basic visceral level, but could also then be dissected and enjoyed for all the meaning and symbolism inside it. I am fascinated at the idea that white people (who are actually represented as red here - with blood and Huppert's red hair) are more closely tied to the land than some of the black children. This could be a response to Chocolat, which always felt to me to be very much an ashamed portrait of French colonialism, saying that not all whites are the same in Africa.

Stars: 3.5 of 4