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''White Material'' is a 2009 French
drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...
film directed by
Claire Denis Claire Denis (; born 21 April 1946) is a French film director and screenwriter. Her feature film ''Beau Travail'' (1999) has been called one of the greatest films of the 1990s, as well as of all time. Other acclaimed works include '' Trouble Ev ...
and co-written with
Marie NDiaye Marie NDiaye (born 4 June 1967) is a French novelist, playwright and screenwriter. She published her first novel, ''Quant au riche avenir'', when she was 17. She won the Prix Goncourt in 2009. Her play ''Papa doit manger'' is the sole play by a ...
. The film stars
Isabelle Huppert Isabelle Anne Madeleine Huppert (; born 16 March 1953) is a French actress. Described as "one of the best actresses in the world", she is known for her portrayals of cold and disdainful characters devoid of morality. She is the recipient of sev ...
as Maria Vial, a struggling French coffee producer in an unnamed French-speaking African country, who decides to stay at her coffee plantation in spite of an erupting civil war. The film was well received, earning high ratings and appearing in several movie critics' top lists for 2010. ''White Material'' was later voted the 97th greatest film since 2000 in an international critics' poll conducted in 2016 by
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
. In 2017 the film was named the fifteenth "Best Film of the 21st Century So Far" in ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''.


Plot

Maria Vial is a
white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...
French farmer who runs (with her ex-husband, Andre, and his sickly father Henri) a failing
coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulant, stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. S ...
plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...
in an unnamed African country in the present day. Maria and Andre have a lazy, mentally unstable son, Manuel. Andre also has a half-African son, Jose. Civil war has broken out and rebel soldiers, many of them
child soldiers Children (defined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child as people under the age of 18) have been recruited for participation in military operations and campaigns throughout history and in many cultures. Children in the military, includ ...
, are advancing on the area. The French military, while pulling out, makes a final plea for Maria to leave, but she is unyielding in her desire to protect her family's home and ignores the warnings. Meanwhile, a rebel DJ on the radio urges the rebels on and advocates attacks on emblems of colonialism. Maria's workers flee for fear of the upcoming conflict. Maria stubbornly refuses to abandon the plantation and its harvest, which will be ready in five days. Risking her life and unable to find Andre, she drives to a village to hire men to finish harvesting the coffee. On the way, she is forced to pay off bandits who threaten to kill her at a roadblock. After hiring the workers, she stops at the elementary school and collects Andre's mixed-race son, Jose. Jose is an upbeat boy of about 12, and we later learn that his mother is the young housekeeper working for Andre's father. Meanwhile, Andre is in town meeting with the African
mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...
, Cherif. Cherif, seeing that Andre is desperate, takes advantage of the situation and offers to purchase the plantation in exchange for cancelling off Andre's debts. Cherif requires Andre to get his father to sign over the coffee plantation to him. Having returned to the plantation, Maria searches for her son Manuel and finds him in bed after midday. Trying to rouse him, she laments his listlessness and scolds that he is without purpose. Manuel rises, and after a swim, is intrigued by a noise in the house. He follows it to two young rebels. They run, and in spite of his lack of shoes, Manuel follows them far from the home. They eventually corner him; he discovers that they're armed with a spear and a machete. The rebel children threaten him, cut his hair, and retreat to the bush, firing shots from a revolver. Maria, Andre, and some workers converge on Manuel and are shocked to find him stripped and standing naked in the field. Maria loads him in the tractor and heads back to the house. Manuel, obviously traumatized and out of his mind, abandons the tractor and goes to his grandfather's home. There the heavily tattooed Manuel reacts to his assault by shaving his head, stealing his grandfather's shotgun, attacking his grandfather's housekeeper, and disappearing on his mother's motorbike. Despite Andre's continued pleas to flee, Maria remains determined to bring in the coffee crop. She discovers the wounded rebel hero known as 'The Boxer' in a barn and feeds him. As night falls, the workers bed down and Maria falls asleep dreaming of an earlier evening. She is discussing Manuel with Cherif in what appears to be a romantic situation fueled by
marijuana Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various tra ...
. Cherif warns her that her son is 'half-baked', a statement that makes her laugh. She awakens and attempts to start work again. However, the radio issues reports that the Boxer is being harbored by "foreigners" and that loyal citizens should oppose them. Her workers, hearing this, demand to be paid immediately. Upon threat, Maria opens the safe to find that the money is gone, likely taken by Andre to secure passage out of the country. Gun at her head, Maria submits to a demand to drive the workers back to the village. Before they can reach the village, they are stopped by a band of young rebels who appear to be wearing her clothing and jewelry. The rebels demand the truck and, when a worker protests that they are just poor villagers, the rebels shoot him and drive off, leaving Maria by the roadside. Maria discovers they have looted the
pharmacy Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it links heal ...
and killed the doctor and his assistant. As the rebels drive the truck down the road, they are pursued by Manuel, who tells them that he knows where the Boxer is. He leads them back to the plantation, where he helps the rebels loot his own family's food store. The rebels and Manuel gorge themselves on the food and take the many pharmaceutical products that they have stolen. Almost all pass out in and around the house. Government troops retake control of the area. They slip onto the plantation grounds, immediately in front of Andre's father, who calls out no warning to anyone inside. The troops move from room to room, slitting the throats of the child rebels who are passed out from the orgy of food and drugs. The troops lock the gun-toting Manuel in one of the farm buildings and burn him to death. Andre is shown dead on the floor of the house and holding the family passports. In town Maria is overwrought. She is seeking a way back to the house when Cherif sees her and gives her a ride. At the plantation Maria finds Manuel's charred body. Andre's father is shown walking around the barn where Manuel was burned. Maria kills Andre's father with a machete. At the end, one rebel leaves the area with the wounds to his head. He carries the beret of the Boxer. He tucks it into his trousers and continues into the countryside.


Cast

*
Isabelle Huppert Isabelle Anne Madeleine Huppert (; born 16 March 1953) is a French actress. Described as "one of the best actresses in the world", she is known for her portrayals of cold and disdainful characters devoid of morality. She is the recipient of sev ...
as Maria Vial *
Christopher Lambert Christophe Guy Denis "Christopher" Lambert (; ; born March 29, 1957) is a French-American actor, producer, and novelist. He started his career playing supporting parts in several French films, and became internationally famous for portraying Ta ...
as André, her ex-husband *
Nicolas Duvauchelle Nicolas Duvauchelle (born 27 March 1980) is a French actor, perhaps best known for his role as Theo in three seasons of the crime drama ''Braquo''. Career Duvauchelle starred in numerous films including ''Lightweight'', '' À tout de suite'' ...
as Manuel, their son * Isaach de Bankolé as "The Boxer" *
Adèle Ado Adele (born 1988) is an English singer-songwriter. Adele may also refer to: People * Adele (given name), a common female given name * Jan Adele (1936–2000), Australian actor * Adele, a character in the operetta ''Die Fledermaus'' Places * Ade ...
as Lucie *
Michel Subor Michel Subor (, born Mischa Subotzki; 2 February 1935 – 17 January 2022) was a French actor who gained initial fame with the starring role in Jean-Luc Godard's second feature, ''Le petit soldat'' (1960), but the French government banned it un ...
as André's father *
William Nadylam William Nadylam (born ) is a French actor. He is best known for playing the role of Yusuf Kama in ''Fantastic Beasts'' film series from the Wizarding World The Wizarding World (previously known as J. K. Rowling's Wizarding World) is a fa ...
as Chérif, the mayor * David Gozlan as Hamudi


Reception

On
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
the film has a "Certified Fresh" approval rating of 86% based on reviews from 90 critics. The site's critical consensus is "Isabelle Huppert is an immoveable object surrounded by unstoppable forces in ''White Material'', an incendiary character study and political thriller that showcases director Claire Denis' expertise in ratcheting tension." On
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
it has a score of 81% based on reviews from 26 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
Manohla Dargis Manohla June Dargis () is an American film critic. She is one of the chief film critics for ''The New York Times''. She is a five-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. Career Before being a film critic for ''The New York Times'', ...
of the
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
described it as a "...powerful, agonized film."
Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
was especially impressed with the performance of Isabelle Huppert,
"...small and slender, heembodies the strength of a fighter. In so many films, she is an indomitable force, yet you can't see how she does it. She rarely acts broadly. The ferocity lives within. Sometimes she is mysteriously impassive; we see what she's determined to do, but she sends no signals with voice or eyes to explain it."
Michael Koresky of
IndieWire IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Hollyw ...
concurs, and also praises the ensemble cast:
"Maria is hardly the film's only character. Christophe Lambert gives a surprisingly fragile performance as her ex-husband, while Nicolas Duvauchelle is downright frightening as the beautiful, blond, lazy Manuel, who descends to peculiar pathological depths and thrusts himself into unexpected action. Meanwhile Isaach de Bankole’s elusive rebel fighter the Boxer’s sudden presence in Maria’s shed, injured, contributes to a blindsiding climactic bit of reckoning."
Kenneth Turan Kenneth Turan (; born October 27, 1946) is an American retired film critic, author, and lecturer in the Master of Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California. He was a film critic for the ''Los Angeles Times'' from 1991 ...
of the ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' also praised the film: "Though it deals with serious political themes and confronts deep personal issues, perhaps the most unexpected thing about "White Material" is that it never forgets to add artful beauty to the mix."


Home media

A digitally restored version of the film was released on DVD and Blu-ray by
The Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinep ...
in April 2011 and features new interviews with Denis and actors Isabelle Huppert and Isaach de Bankolé, a short documentary by Denis on the film's premiere at the 2010 Écrans Noirs Film Festival in Cameroon, and a deleted scene.


Top ten lists

The film has appeared on a number of critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2010. * 1st – Guy Lodge, ''In Contention'' * 2nd – Michael W. Phillips, ''Goatdog's Movies'' * 3rd – ''Reverse Shot'' * 3rd –
Amy Taubin Amy Taubin (born September 10, 1938) is an American author and film critic. She is a contributing editor for two prominent film magazines, the British ''Sight & Sound'' and the American ''Film Comment''. She has also written regularly for ''The V ...
, ''
Film Comment ''Film Comment'' is the official publication of Film at Lincoln Center. It features reviews and analysis of mainstream, art-house, and avant-garde filmmaking from around the world. Founded in 1962 and originally released as a quarterly, ''Film Co ...
'' * 3rd – Mike Wilmington, ''Movie City News'' * 4th – Sean Axmaker, ''MSN Movies'' * 5th – Mark Asch, ''
L Magazine ''The L Magazine'' was a free bi-weekly magazine in New York City featuring investigative articles, arts and culture commentary, and event listings. It was available through distribution in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and Hoboken. History ''Th ...
'' * 5th –
J. Hoberman James Lewis Hoberman (born March 14, 1949) is an American film critic, journalist, author and academic. He began working at ''The Village Voice'' in the 1970s, became a full-time staff writer in 1983, and was the newspaper's senior film critic ...
, ''
San Francisco Weekly ''SF Weekly'' was a free alternative weekly newspaper founded in the 1970s in San Francisco, California. It was distributed every Thursday, and was published by the San Francisco Print Media Company. The paper has won national journalism awards, ...
'' * 6th – Melissa Anderson, ''
Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the creat ...
'' * 10th – Caryn James, ''
indieWIRE IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Hollyw ...
'' * 10th – James Rocchi, ''MSN Movies''


Awards and nominations

* Nomination – Denver Film Critics Society Award for Best Foreign Language Film (pending) * Nomination –
Golden Lion The Golden Lion ( it, Leone d'oro) is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is now regarded as one of the film industry's most prestigious and distinguishe ...
– Claire Denis * Nomination –
Satellite Award for Best Foreign Language Film The Satellite Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the annual Satellite Awards given by the International Press Academy The International Press Academy (IPA) is an American association of professional entertainment journalists, represe ...
* Nomination – Washington DC Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Foreign Language Film


References


External links

*
Why Not Productions Website

''White Material: Out of Africa''
an essay by
Amy Taubin Amy Taubin (born September 10, 1938) is an American author and film critic. She is a contributing editor for two prominent film magazines, the British ''Sight & Sound'' and the American ''Film Comment''. She has also written regularly for ''The V ...
at the
Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinep ...
{{Claire Denis 2009 films 2009 drama films French drama films 2000s French-language films Films directed by Claire Denis French independent films Films about race and ethnicity 2009 independent films 2000s French films