Chocolat

Claire Denis' fully formed debut offers a child’s-eye-view of racial and sexual tension that bubbles with unspoken desires.

Claire Denis’ debut announced her as a fully formed talent.

Part-inspired by her childhood in French colonial Africa, Chocolat boasts a coiled central performance by Isaach De Bankolé as Protée, ‘house boy’ to a white family. This is a child’s-eye-view of racial and sexual tension that bubbles with unspoken desires, injustices, and a jaunty score by Abdullah Ibrahim. A must-see.