[Chocolat] catapulted Claire Denis onto the world cinema stage, a film about a young woman recalling her coming-of-age in Africa. With [White Material], Denis returns to the land of her childhood, this time tackling much tougher landscapes. A white coffee plantation owner, Maria, tries desperately to hold on to her land in the middle of civil war, where she has been dubbed by the enemy ? white material. She is willfully oblivious to all around her ? her family, the country, history, and her position. Falling in love with her is The Boxer, a black man wanted by local gangs of child soldiers to be their leader. Denis’ intimate knowledge of Africa precludes any condescending liberal guilt, and she positions the continent as bewitching and addicting; and exciting, dangerous place that can quickly become a lingering hunger. There are no excuses or explanations to be found here. Anchored by a fantastically articulated performance by Isabelle Huppert, [White Material] is a searing, clear-eyed, unsentimental look at modern Africa, when colonialism has been usurped by civil war and race relations remain a point of contention.