Chocolat (1988)

Description

A white family inhabits a remote Cameroon town during the final days of colonial France, alone, isolated and stuck between two worlds. The head of the family is Marc, an itinerant regional administrator. His wife, Aimée, does her best to stave off frustration and boredom with domestic chores while their young daughter, France, cultivates a special friendship with the native servant boy, Protée. When a plane full of strangers makes an emergency landing nearby their already precariously balanced world is threatened with chaos, as the arrival unleashes a torrent of simmering resentments, racism and repressed passions. Claire Denis' international breakthrough, the semi-autobiographical 'Chocolat' is a masterful examination ofthe lure, fear and intangibility of 'the other' that epitomises her vision in precise, vivid clarity.