The Fence

Claire Denis’ first film shot in Africa since WHITE MATERIAL (2009) is a tantalising epitome of late style. An adaptation of Bernard-Marie Koltès’ 1979 play Combat de nègre et de chiens, THE FENCE takes place over 24 hours, mostly on a vast construction site “somewhere in West Africa”. Site manager Horn (Matt Dillon, channeling Clark Gable in 1961’s THE MISFITS) is awaiting the arrival of his young new bride Leone (Mia Mackenna-Bruce) when a local man, Alboury (an always welcome Isaach De Bankolé, wearing Saint Laurent) appears on the other side of the compound’s fence demanding the corpse of his recently deceased brother. He won’t leave. Sticking to a deliberately stagey mise-en-scène, Denis is not interested in escaping the suffocating atmosphere as much as transcending it with stylistic flourishes that contribute to a mounting sense of doom and unease. If THE FENCE’s thematic thrusts of postcolonial discontent and sexual tension might seem slightly overemphasised, they serve here as vehicles for Denis and Eric Gauthier’s indelible images, of a high heel stuck in the mud, the dangling strap of a dress, of bodies in motion, filmed by an artist never shy to turn away from the troubles that haunt us every day. (Mark Peranson)

Claire Denis (selection): CHOCOLAT (1988), S’EN FOUT LA MORT (1990), J’AI PAS SOMMEIL (1994), NÉNETTE ET BONI (1996), BEAU TRAVAIL (1999), TROUBLE EVERY DAY (2001), VENDREDI SOIR (2002), L’INTRUS (2004), 35 RHUMS (2008), WHITE MATERIAL (2009), LES SALAUDS (2013), UN BEAU SOLEIL INTÉRIEUR (2017), HIGH LIFE (2018), STARS AT NOON (2022)