White Material

Marking the first collaboration between two icons of French cinema—director Claire Denis and actress Isabelle Huppert—White Material unfolds as a fever dream, a haunting, enigmatic look at the horrors of colonialism’s legacy, a subject that Denis first explored in her semiautobiographical debut feature, Chocolat (1988). Set in an unnamed African country during an unspecified time, White Material revolves around Maria Vial, a coffee-plantation owner who is blindly determined to continue her business while civil war rages on around her.

(Claire Denis, 2010, France, French with English subtitles, 35mm, 102 min)

The Tournées Festival of New French Cinema
January 6-February 3, 2012
For the fourth year, the FSC and France Chicago Center partner to bring a series of contemporary French films to campus. This winter, spend Friday evenings with the films of five innovative directors whose work represents the best of French cinema today.

The Tournées Festival was made possible with the support of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, the French Ministry of Culture (CNC), The Florence Gould Foundation, The Grand Marnier Foundation and highbrow entertainment.