Ciné Club Series: White Material by Claire Denis

In White Material (2009), French director Claire Denis delivers a powerful and unsettling portrait of a world at the edge of collapse.
A book signing with Ericka Knudson will follow the Q&A.

Set in an unnamed African country on the brink of civil war, the film follows Maria Vial, played with ferocious intensity by Isabelle Huppert, a white plantation owner who refuses to abandon her failing coffee estate even as violence closes in.

Co-written with novelist Marie NDiaye, the film reflects her recurring exploration of identity and perception. As she writes in Les Soeurs : “But, growing up among mostly white faces, Victoire saw herself like them, or more precisely, never thought that there were any noticeable differences between their features and her own that could alter in the slightest her own way of appearing to the world.”

In White Material, these questions unfold in a world where power is shifting and history is catching up with those who believed they stood outside it.

Watch the trailer

The evening will conclude with a wine reception, offering a chance for discussion and reflection among fellow cinephiles.

Movie in French with English subtitles.

And continue the conversation with us:
We are thrilled to welcome novelist and co-screenwriter Marie NDiaye to the French Library on April 25, in conversation around her latest novel in translation, The Witch.