White Material
Hanging onto land has rarely looked so hopeless. Claire Denis’s White Material follows Maria, a French coffee farmer in an unnamed African country, clinging to her plantation while civil war creeps ever closer. The story moves slowly, but there’s menace everywhere — checkpoints, rebels, the farm itself — and you can feel that holding on might be the most dangerous choice of all.
Isabelle Huppert is brilliant as Maria, fierce but completely deluded. She marches through danger with brittle confidence, convinced her farm will survive when everything around her is falling apart. The family’s a mess, the country’s imploding, but she keeps digging in her heels.
Denis makes it beautiful and terrifying at the same time. The scorched yellows of the savannah, the bleached whites of the interiors, the blood-red coffee cherries — it’s all vivid, all alive, and always in contrast with the collapse surrounding it. The film doesn’t lecture, but the point is clear: privilege and stubbornness don’t save you when history comes calling.
Isabelle Huppert is brilliant as Maria, fierce but completely deluded. She marches through danger with brittle confidence, convinced her farm will survive when everything around her is falling apart. The family’s a mess, the country’s imploding, but she keeps digging in her heels.
Denis makes it beautiful and terrifying at the same time. The scorched yellows of the savannah, the bleached whites of the interiors, the blood-red coffee cherries — it’s all vivid, all alive, and always in contrast with the collapse surrounding it. The film doesn’t lecture, but the point is clear: privilege and stubbornness don’t save you when history comes calling.
Mini Review: Claire Denis’s White Material shows a French coffee farmer clinging to her land as civil war looms. Isabelle Huppert is fierce yet deluded, striding through chaos with brittle confidence. The colours are stunning — scorched yellows, bleached whites, blood-red cherries — but it’s beauty set against collapse. A slow burn with menace in every frame, and a clear warning that privilege offers no protection when history turns.