IFC Harvests Claire Denis’ White Material

Not sure how much time after world preems in Venice and TIFF that the IFC Films folks scooped up the rights to Claire Denis’ White Material, but if you are like me, both a fan of Denis and this film, or you run Fin de Cinema, you’d have noticed that next month’s BAMcinématek presents Focus on IFC Films contains a surprise selection that hadn’t been yet announced as an IFC pick-up. With the film, Denis returns to familiar terrain, not necessarily in thematic terms, but actual setting, and the film sees Isabelle Huppert’s central character with her head cut off. A plantation owner in the minority, she is so engrained with her own set of values and perception of what constitutes a real threat to her business, that she becomes oblivious to the, life-threatening drama unfolding around her and her family members — it was a viewing experience that in many ways is engaging, infuriating and there aren’t many dull moments. 

Scripted by novelist Marie Ndiaye, the regular army is preparing to reestablish order in the country. To clean up. To eliminate the rebel officer also known as the Boxeur and rid the countryside of roving child soldiers. All the expatriates have gone home, getting out before things turn nasty. Of the Vials, coffee planters who have lived here for two generations, Maria stands firm. She’s not about to give in to rumors or abandon her harvest at the first sound of gunfire. Just like her father-in-law and her ex-husband who is also the father of her son (a little too much of a slacker in her opinion) she is convinced that Cherif, mayor of the neighboring town, will protect them. If she asks him, he will save the plantation.