Review of Chocolat

'Chocolat' A review by Deena Padayachee. directed by Roschdy Zem and starring Omar Sy and James Thiérrée. This film is a devastating indictment of the imperial caste system in imperial France. You see this tall black man walk into a circus ring hand in hand with a monkey - to the derisory hoots of the conquerors. That's the kind of thing many black people had to do to survive in those trying times when we were the descendants of the conquered and our children had little hope. These broken semi slaves were often forced to run a horrifying gauntlet and they experienced the most excruciating pain and indignity just to be allowed to draw breath. Chocolat's father saw his son watch him the old man was forced to to behave like an animal and accept crumbs from the Master's table. The 'chocolate' man later became one half of black and white circus act at the beginning of the 20th century. He is usually the clown who is booted, slapped and punched by the white actor. A shroud of humiliation and mockery beset him every waking minute. Perpetual stress and depression was part of his permanent tomb as a plaything in the heart of the French empire. Virtually his only source of happiness emanated from the beautiful white women who were willing to enter his ebony world and love him. At one point he is told, "For white people, a successful black man is a great insult." Trying to work and survive in the land of 'liberty, equality and fraternity', it was inevitable that his very presence was seen as an affront by many French. In what appeared to be a contrived stratagem, Chocolat is arrested and tortured for 'not having an ID document'. This atrocity predated the Apartheid dompass system. A dark skin instantly criminalised one in the eyes of many light skinned people. The imperial legal system was there to terrorise, torture, undermine, sabotage and murder black people who dared to utilise their gifts and become the peers of white people. This film is an exceptional exposition of the terrible trials and tribulations of the conquered caste in the era before the world wars between the empires - wars that helped to free, to an extent, the conquered world. From childhood I used to wonder why so many non white people behaved so badly when they had the choice to behave decently. A tragedy of infinite proportions is the fact that millions of descendants of the conquered will never know that this film exists. When I saw the film, most of the audience was white. Ours is still very much a conquered, colonised world. But many do not know that.