Chocolat

Duration: 106 mi

Year Published: 1988

Creator: Cinemanuel : Marin Karmitz-MK2 Productions : Cerito Films : La S.E.P.T. : Wim Wenders Productions-Berlin : Caroline Productions : Le F.O.D.I.C. : T.F.I. Films production

Format: 16mm

Color: Color

Sound: sound

Description: Memories of a childhood in a remote part of the French Cameroons provides the basis for this subtle, partly autobiographical, portrait of a colonial society. France (a surrogate for the filmmaker), revisiting the Cameroons, flashes back to scenes of her youth when her father was a French colonial official. The precarious equilibrium of their household (the mother is attracted to a young black servant) is disturbed by the sudden arrival of a group of outsiders, both European and African, after the forced landing of their plane nearby. The sharpness of the observation and the performances - each of the outsiders represents a different perspective on Africa - prevents the film from sliding into easy nostalgia for a time and way of life long since past.