REVIEW: DVD Release: White Material

Film: White Material
Release date: 6th December 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 102 mins
Director: Claire Denis
Starring: Isabelle Huppert, Isaach De Bankole, Christophe Lambert, Nicolas Duvauchelle, William Nadylam
Genre: Drama
Studio: Artificial Eye
Format: DVD & Blu-ray
Country: France/Cameroon

In Claire Denis’ White Material (shot in Cameroon), themes of colonialism and rebellion collide within the context of an unspecified African nation. The film is, at times, deeply disturbing and shocking, and marks Denis’ filmmaking return to Africa (after previously studying themes of African colonialism in films such as her 1988 directorial debut Chocolat) whilst drawing on real-life experiences of growing up in the continent.

In the midst of a growing civil war in an unstable African state, coffee planter Maria Vial (Isabelle Huppert) faces a choice between leaving behind her way of life for her own (and her family’s) safety, or facing up to the terrible consequences of staying at the plantation.

Amidst scenes of violence, gang warfare and deadly weapon-wielding child soldiers, Maria’s immovable will compels her to stay, even when all the plantation workers desert her in fear of their lives. To compound this, Maria’s ex husband (Christopher Lambert) has his own plans to sell the plantation, while her idle son’s (Nicolas Duvauchelle) humiliation at the hands of child soldiers pushes him towards madness with horrendous consequences.

As tension in the surrounding area begins to grow, Maria’s protection of a wanted rebel officer, known as The Boxer (Isaach De Bankolé), invites even more danger into her domain…


In White Material, this imprecise state in Africa is one filled with post-colonial tension and rage; where violence and aggression can flare up without a moment’s notice, and rebels urge assault on any evidence of white imperialism. Director Claire Denis is hugely successful in creating a sense of foreboding throughout the film until the inevitable destruction and despair of the finale, and creates a number of unsettling set-pieces highlighting an area entrenched in destructive civil war.

For instance, the film contains shocking scenes of children and young men committing acts of brutality and bloodshed, acting on impulse in a lawless area for desperate personal gain. In one of White Material’s pivotal moments, Maria’s son Manuel is mercilessly humiliated at the hands of machine gun toting child militia. This sets him upon a path of despair, and his own ultimate destruction, enticing a strong performance from Nicolas Duvauchelle as a son in search of a twisted and psychologically flawed form of bloody revenge for being placed in a way of life he does not want.

Maria herself is a complicated character, where her motives for staying in the plantation are rather muddied. She is a woman who is aware of the tension and destruction heading towards her sanctuary, yet chooses to ignore the blatant danger to her own and her family’s life by staying on at the plantation (even at one point hurriedly burying out of sight a goat’s head thrown into a coffee crop yield as a purposefully disturbing warning). Huppert’s performance in the central role is therefore extremely intriguing, and may leave viewers torn in their sense of sympathy for a character who longs to keep hold of an increasingly threatened and fading way of life.

The native African cast are also very effective in their roles, with the child soldiers especially chilling in their seemingly endless quest for destruction. The portrayal of unrest and lawless brutality in the unnamed state is a brave one by Denis, adding to a sense of raw realism and unbridled ever-increasing danger not always present in the romanticised cinematography of mainstream film portrayals of Africa.

Yet, conversely, the failure to provide any real background or context in relation to the reasons behind the civil war gang uprising arguably reduces the impact of Denis’ analysis of post-colonial rebellion. In contrast to the mostly strong, if not occasionally murky motivations of the film’s characters, Christopher Lambert’s role feels somewhat extraneous in relation to proceedings. Indeed the film feels like a condensed or cut down version of a larger canvas, where fully formed plot points and characters, such as rebel hero The Boxer, appear to be less than the sum of the complete film. The finale, while climaxing in horrifically brutal fashion, subsequently feels somewhat rushed; with a final character action from Maria that might be interpreted as being either highly inconsistent with the character or a clever depiction of her own descent into the madness that consumed her son.


White Material is a worthwhile and thought-provoking film, even if it does not quite reach the full sum of its parts. Isabelle Huppert is intriguingly complex and engaging in the central performance, with Nicholas Duvauchelle also shining in a difficult role as a young man descending into darkness. DB