White Material is a 2009 French drama film directed by Claire Denis and co-written with Marie NDiaye.

The film was well received, earning high ratings and appearing in several movie critics' top lists for 2010.

White Material was later voted the 97th greatest film since 2000 in an international critics' poll conducted in 2016 by BBC.

[3] Maria Vial is a white French farmer who runs (with her ex-husband, Andre, and his sickly father Henri) a failing coffee plantation in an unnamed African country in the present day.

The French military, while pulling out, makes a final plea for Maria to leave, but she is unyielding in her desire to protect her family's home and ignores the warnings.

Risking her life and unable to find Andre, she drives to a village to hire men to finish harvesting the coffee.

The rebel children threaten him, cut his hair, and retreat to the bush, firing shots from a revolver.

Maria, Andre, and some workers converge on Manuel and are shocked to find him stripped and standing naked in the field.

Despite Andre's continued pleas to flee, Maria remains determined to bring in the coffee crop.

They slip onto the plantation grounds, immediately in front of Andre's father, who calls out no warning to anyone inside.

The site's critical consensus is "Isabelle Huppert is an immoveable object surrounded by unstoppable forces in White Material, an incendiary character study and political thriller that showcases director Claire Denis' expertise in ratcheting tension.

[6] Roger Ebert was especially impressed with the performance of Isabelle Huppert, "...small and slender, [she] embodies the strength of a fighter.

Christophe Lambert gives a surprisingly fragile performance as her ex-husband, while Nicolas Duvauchelle is downright frightening as the beautiful, blond, lazy Manuel, who descends to peculiar pathological depths and thrusts himself into unexpected action.

Meanwhile Isaach de Bankole’s elusive rebel fighter the Boxer’s sudden presence in Maria’s shed, injured, contributes to a blindsiding climactic bit of reckoning.

"[8]Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times also praised the film: "Though it deals with serious political themes and confronts deep personal issues, perhaps the most unexpected thing about "White Material" is that it never forgets to add artful beauty to the mix.