White Material (2009)

Director: Claire Denis

Starring: Isabelle Hubert, Christopher Lambert, Nicolas Duvauchelle

Primary genre: Drama

For those who consider themselves coffee connoisseurs, “White Material” could be utterly devastating. Reclusive chardonnay socialists who love their daily dose of the addictive drink will find the take of Claire Denis “problematic” and “sketchy” unwilling to admit their own obliviousness when it comes to the ways external influences use to exploit local resources. If you do not see it, then it probably does not happen, right?

This is colonialization conducted under a different group of settings. You might think it is only coffee but for our protagonist Maria Vial it is more than that. This coffee plantation owner is blissfully ignorant at the face of immediate danger bearing complete apathy at her own social isolation, insisting on her harvest at the backdrop of an escalating civil war in an unnamed African country. The point though here is not to exercise any critique or discuss the high moral ground. Denis’ camera is strictly an observer of Vial’s life; whether it is her disincline to discipline her (slob of a) son or to accept her enormous (for the lack of a better word) privilege - each one of her rooms has air con while her workers sleep on the floor in a shack, Maria is parading callously among her peers exercising her right to make coffee speaking only her language unbothered by the displays of her casual-ity during her every day interactions.

Vial matters to herself at one point “how whites are filthy and do not deserve this land”, a conspicuous viewpoint serving as a parallel for the audience’s perception of Vial herself. This projection is exactly the type of Maria’s lived daily fantasy. Anyone who has traveled to distant and hard to navigate places like Nepal or India can encounter these rather fascinating individuals who reside in a reality bubble of their own making. Denis does not seek to invoke melodramatic sentiments either distancing herself from establishing a black or white stance in these in development extraordinary circumstances. Multiple viewings will highlight several blink-and-you-will-miss it fractures in this fragile society that only a place such as a “foreign” coffee plantation can offer.

“White Material” does not shy away from uncomfortable truths. Denis’ (co-)script points out a variety of issues which plague African countries without a compromised filter. These precious bean packages which slap on the front a happy farmer smile hide the lurking exploitive corpo mechanism. Eduardo Galeano, author of the brilliant book “The Open Veins of Latin America” famously said that a grain of sugar from Brazil is a socio-economic lesson for the world. In similar fashion, the process of producing coffee in Africa reflects this sentiment raising several questions. Combined with the overwhelmed and weak local government and incoming rebel chaos, a recipe for a social disaster that by 2009, people are used to it, is inevitable; child soldiers, murder, harassment, intimidation are part of a constant influx of motivations, short term capitalism and occasional sadism. Vial’s son could be easily seen as a metaphor for any African country. Once things are set into motion and spiral out of control causing irreplaceable damage, they end as fast as they started only to re-initiate a circle of events that at the end have nothing to do with coffee production. There is a lot to unpack here.

Isabelle Hubert plays an infuriating character who at the age of any “ism” you can think off, would further showcase an unflattering(?) portrayal for these Northern Europeans. Cold, and laser focused, she disregards her worker’s warnings and her ex-husband’s advice (an excellent but underused Christopher Lambert) among others to do what exactly? Maybe even herself does not know and this notion is being extended into her fragmented family. Shot in Cameroon, the film oozes authenticity reminds us the work of Fernado Meirelles in “The Constant Gardener” (2005) four year earlier. While Meirelles relied on the complexities of political intricacies and the pharmaceutical meddling, “White Material” leans solely on a 48-hour personal odyssey. There are hints of a laconic backstory here and there; once pieced together bring forward a complex yet ultimately shallow protagonist who potentially does not deserve your sympathy.

This indirect storytelling is a traditional trademark of European filmmaking requiring a process of moderate (at least) thinking to reach a thematically coherent conclusion lacking the cemented tropes of heroism, redemption and courage. The sudden plot changes might bother those who appreciate structure, likeable leads and emotional catharsis but then again, this bold presentation is the closest you could get from a story perspective to understand real world stakes from the comfort of your couch.

A thoughtful lesson in modern colonialization

+Isabelle Hubert as expected is great

+Denis morally ambiguous script

+Strong thematic substance

+Lambert

-Although underused

-Infuriating main lead

-Lacks traditional structure