Ciné Club Series: White Material by Claire Denis

Friday, April 17, 2026 From 6:00 PM To 8:00 PM Add to Calendar 2026-04-17 18:00:00 2026-04-17 20:00:00 Ciné Club Series: White Material by Claire Denis Don't miss this special screening of White Material, a remarkable collaboration between filmmaker Claire Denis and novelist Marie Ndiaye French Library, 53 Marlborough Street, Boston, MA, United States America/New_York

At French Library

Join us in this essential screening and discussion exploring one of the New York Time's best films of the century so far. In White Material (2009), French director Claire Denis delivers a powerful and unsettling portrait of a world at the edge of collapse.

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.

The screening will be followed by a discussion with Mariel Iezonne, a Boston-based writer, director, and producer whose work bridges fiction and documentary film. Her storytelling focuses on empathy, resilience, and the courage it takes to live with integrity.

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.

Members

$14

Non-members

$18

About Claire Denis

French filmmaker Claire Denis is one of the most influential voices in contemporary world cinema. Born in Paris in 1946, she spent much of her childhood in colonial West Africa, particularly Cameroon, an experience that would shape her lifelong exploration of displacement, race, and belonging.

After graduating from the prestigious French film school IDHEC, Denis worked with major international directors including Wim Wenders and Jim Jarmusch, before directing her first feature, Chocolat (1988).

Her landmark film Beau Travail (1999) is widely considered one of the greatest films of its era. She has since built a body of work known for its emotional intensity and visual power, including Trouble Every Day (2001), 35 Shots of Rum (2008), White Material (2009), High Life (2018), and Both Sides of the Blade (2022), which earned her the Silver Bear for Best Director at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Denis frequently collaborates with major literary voices, including Marie NDiaye, bringing psychological and philosophical depth to her films. As Denis herself has said, it is often “what is hidden” that drives her cinema. Her films do not explain the world; they reveal its emotional and historical undercurrents. .

About Marie NDiaye

Marie NDiaye is a French novelist, playwright, and screenwriter whose career spans nearly four decades. She published her first novel at age 18 and went on to receive the Prix Goncourt in 2009 for Three Strong Women, France’s most prestigious literary award.

Since then she has established herself as one of the most important writers working in French today, publishing across multiple genres to ever-greater critical acclaim, notably with the Prix Femina for Rosie Carpe (2001; Rosie Carpe, 2004). Her play Papa doit manger entered the repertoire of the Comédie-Française, a rare distinction for a living writer. She also co-wrote the screenplay for White Material with director Claire Denis.

Her work is widely translated and studied internationally. Her previous novel in English, Vengeance Is Mine (2023), was named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker, TIME, and The Washington Post. Across fiction, theater, and film, her writing is recognized for its psychological depth and its exploration of identity, power, and family relationships.

About Mariel Iezzoni

Mariel Iezzoni is an independent filmmaker practicing both fiction and documentary film. Her latest short, Burial, premiered at the Richmond Film Festival and was a Special Jury Nominee. She received her MFA in Film from the City College of New York where she graduated a BAFTA Scholar and winner of the Chantal Akerman Student Prize.

She is currently writing and producing her first full-length feature film, Red Hill Town, about a family who are the last remaining citizens of an abandoned coal mining town in northeast Pennsylvania. She began her love of French cinema as an undergraduate student in Paris.

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