Chocolat (1988 film)

The film begins with an adult woman named France, walking down a road toward Douala, Cameroon. While walking, she is picked up by William J. Park (Emmet Judson Williamson), an African American who has moved to Africa and is driving to Limbe with his son. As they ride, France's mind drifts and we see her as a young girl in Northern French Cameroon where her father was a colonial administrator.

The story is conducted through the eyes of young France, showing her friendship with the "houseboy", Protée, as well the sexual tension between him and her young and beautiful mother, Aimée. The conflict of the film comes from the discomfort created as France and her mother attempt to move past the established boundaries between themselves and the native Africans. This is brought to a head through Luc Segalen (Jean-Claude Adelin), a Western drifter who stays with the Dalens family after a small aircraft crashes nearby. He acknowledges Aimée's attraction to Protée in the presence of other black servants. This later results in a fight between Luc and Protée, which Protée wins. During the fight, Aimée sits nearby, unseen by the two. She attempts to seduce Protée after Luc has left but he rejects her advance. Aimée consequently asks her husband to remove him from the house. Protée is moved from his in-house job to work outdoors in the garage as a mechanic.

The title Chocolat comes from the 1950s slang meaning "to be cheated", and thus refers to the status in French Cameroon of being black and being cheated. Towards the end of the film, France's father reveals a central theme of the film as he explains to her what the horizon line is. He tells her that it is a line that is there but not there, a symbol for the racial boundary that exists in the country. This line is not a physical one but is still one that people widely recognize.

• Isaach de Bankolé as Protée
• Giulia Boschi as Aimée Dalens
• François Cluzet as Marc Dalens
• Cécile Ducasse as France Dalens, as a girl
• Mireille Perrier as France Dalens, as a woman
• Jean-Claude Adelin as Luc
• Laurent Arnal as Machinard
• Jean Bediebe as Prosper
• Didier Flamand as Captain Védrine
• Jean-Quentin Châtelain as Courbassol
• Emmanuelle Chaulet as Mireille Machinard
• Kenneth Cranham as Jonathan Boothby
• Jacques Denis as Joseph Delpich
• Clementine Essono as Marie-Jeanne
• Essindi Mindja as Blaise

The soundtrack, performed and recorded by Abdullah Ibrahim, was released in 1988 as Mindif.

• Chocolat on IMDb
• Film guide & resources for Culture & Literature of Africa course