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White Material
takes place in remote, anonymous part of Africa which is being tormented by
civil war. A French family business is caught inside a violent power
struggle between the rebels and the government militia as the French Army
retreats. The politics behind “Café Vial” are as complicated as the ones
driving the country: the land along with the coffee crops belongs to father
and son, but it is being run solely by the son’s ex-wife (Huppert), who the
father entrusted with the job. Marie owns nothing, but is responsible for
everything, so she sees the land as belonging to her. She doesn’t want her
property to be taken away from her and she doesn’t see a future for herself
in France, so she tries with all her might to keep the business alive,
despite the constant calls which urge her to give up. Both the rebels and
the government want her out, her ex-husband doesn’t see a point in carrying
on. Still, that doesn’t discourage Marie who hires new workers and tends to
the crops. This decision sends her family down a spiral of pain and
suffering.
First of all, I’d give White
Material props for the mere presence of a plot and a setting (which
many movies at the festival this year seem to lack). The story unravels
without unnecessary stops for pretentious monologues, the narration is solid
and brilliantly aided by the ever-present voice of a local radio dj, who
follows the rebels during their mission to close in on white land owners.
The tension mounts while the movie heads for it’s gruesome climax, a glimpse
of which Denis presents to us at the beginning of the movie and which we
gradually come to understand. The drama which is the participation of
children in the conflict is depicted realistically, with an edge similar to
Johnny Mad Dog. As for the acting, I’d say it’s pretty good, but I
definitely expected more from Huppert, a stroke of genius that never came.
White Material isn’t a
straight-forward movie, in the sense that the protagonists’ actions aren’t
obvious at first thought. Marie’s teenage son, who is rebel in his own right
(he doesn’t fit in in Africa), gets threatened with a gun and humiliated by
two child guerillas. In the next scene he shaves his head, steals his
father’s rifle and joins the rebels himself - as the easiest thing capable
of letting you forget you pain is inflicting pain on someone else, even if
it’s the ones you love. It’s like what you might see at school: children
that are regularly harassed by bullies often turn into bullies themselves.
Judging by the reaction of the audience, the final scene (which I won’t give
away) also left many clueless, but if you watch the movie closely, you will
find that Marie’s action wasn’t that illogical.
On a grander scale, I believe the movie deals with the way Europeans tend to
falsely idealize some parts of the Third World. For it’s local inhabitants
Africa means surviving on a day-to-day basis, it’s about protecting yourself
and you family, dealing with hard-boiled facts. For Marie, on the other
hand, Africa is a place to run away to, an anti-depressant, a form of
placebo. It’s pure escapism, a means to fill some existential void. No
matter how hard she tries to blend in with the surrounding, in the end she
sees only what she wishes to see (as returning to France seems more
terrifying to her then anything else) and subconsciously believes that the
color of her skin will protect her at any time, just like a bullet-proof
vest. So, although I acknowledge her strength and character, I can’t say
she’s innocent, as is nobody else in
White Material.
06:09:2009
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