Zombi Child (2019)

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   Siskoid

   It's hard to categorize Zombi Child until you've seen it through because there are a number of moving parts that connect with one another only in due course to create a fuller picture. Among these pieces are true Haitian zombis working the fields in the 1960s, a Haitian teenager going to a new school in France, her aunt who appears to be a voodoo priestess, and her white friend who writes letters to her summer love. At first, there is certainly a sense that the "zombies" are the teenage girls, vacuously mumbling their lines (if you know actual French young people, you will recognize the patois and delivery, which to me was often as opaque as the Haitian creole, thank you subtitles) and disconnected from their reality (whether their classes or their emotions). But since there appear to be real zombies in the film, things get progressively stranger and writer-director Bertrand Bonello uses his time not only to portray what feels like genuine voodoo practices and ethos, but also ask pointed questions. Is the flesh-eating movie zombie a corruptive act of cultural appropriation and what effect does it have on contemporary generations' view of their own culture? When a white person decides to use voodoo's power, is that also an act of colonial aggression? Is there in fact a "hierarchy of pain"? Who should have the market cornered on that, by rights? As an intellectual top layer, he uses the school's teachers to ask further questions and put ideas in our heads, while also encouraging critical thinking and a questioning of the material. Those glimpses into the class room could in and of themselves, act as filters through which someone could write a number of essays on this simple, but rich film. 3 years 8 months ago

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