CHEVALIERS BLANCS/WHITE KNIGHTS

France, 2015, 112 minutes, Colour.

Vincent Lindon, Louise Bourgoin, Valerie Donzelli, Reda Kateb.

Directed by Joachim Lafosse.

This is an African story but it is also a French story, raising the issues about European interventions in Africa in the 21^st-century, memories of the colonial background, the consequences for the African people themselves, and the role of NGOs and their good intentions.

Veteran Vincent Lindon and plays the head of an NGO, strong-minded but having to act with delicacy and integrity, working with the French volunteers and their different ambitions and aims, working with the local chiefs, discovering mismanagement, also finding a group of children and their mothers who need rescue.

While much of the film could be seen as documentary -like, it is also a strong drama with tensions for the head of the NGO, diplomacy, split-second timing, the need for aid, the reaction of the African chiefs.

The issues outlined in this film still continue, especially with covid 19, and the epidemic crises of 2020…

1. An African story? A French story? Europe intervention in Africa? NGOs? Colonial background?
2. The story of an NGO, its authority, the members and volunteers, their mission, orphans in Africa, the rescue, transferred to France and its opportunities? Authority? The legal or not?
3. The African country, unnamed? The presentation of the people, the arrival of the French, the clamour, the application for jobs, the travel to the villages, the Chiefs, the discussions? The military? The attack on the car? The reprimands from the military authority?
4. The stance of the film, in favour of the interventions? Critical of the interventions in their manner? A postcolonial story?
5. Jacques, leader of the group, intense, his personality, the group, the arrival, the intentions, the issue of planes, vehicles, meeting with the Chiefs, finding the children, the thwarting of the ambitions, the Army reprimand, the discussions with the group, clashes? Support of the journalist?
6. The visits, Jacques and the personnel, the plains, commandeering the plane, the later reprimands? The finances, budgeting? The response of the Chiefs, Jacques and suspicions, the issues of Finance?
7. The finding of children, the mother wanting to give her baby and the refusal, orphans and the search for them? Eventually rescuing some, washing them, feeding them? The prospects?
8. The development of the mission, success or failure? The interventions? The visits, the clashes? The dangers? Getting more children? The planes and getting out?
9. A film making audiences aware of voluntary organisations, their motivations, going into dangerous places, having a visual and audio record of what they did, the role of journalists, whether this mission was appropriate or not?