Colonialism’s risky romance

In the midst of the chaos remains one white plantation family, defiantly anchored by Mme. Maria Vial (Isabelle Huppert). Her workers are fleeing, government helicopters hover overhead warning her to get the hell out, but Maria insists she can get the coffee beans harvested in time. Huppert (“Violette,’’ “The Piano Teacher’’) has built a career out of playing such obsessives, dangers to themselves and everyone around them, but Maria is a special case. She still carries the romance of Africa in her buzzing head — a romance founded on inequity and exploitation — and nothing will shake it loose. She’s Mother Courage as a self-destructive entrepreneur.

The men in Maria’s life only set her jaw more firmly. Her father-in-law (Michel Subor), the plantation’s owner, is an invalid; her weak-willed husband (Christophe Lambert) is trying to sell the business behind her back to the local warlord (William Nadylam). Manuel (Nicolas Duvauchelle), Maria’s useless teenage son, foolishly thinks he can join the rebels; his transformation from lazy Euro to skinhead berserker is the movie’s most striking yet far-fetched conceit.

The weakness of “White Material,’’ in fact, is that its characters rarely escape their assigned meanings. The most intriguing figure here is The Boxer, a legendary guerilla played by Isaach De Bankolé (who, tellingly, starred in “Chocolat’’). Powerful and leonine, the character is also functionally impotent, hiding in a plantation outbuilding and tending to wounds we already know will prove mortal. The Boxer represents the country’s last, best hope for self-rule before the coming apocalypse, but even De Bankolé’s immense charisma can’t make him more than a symbol.