The Guadeloupean film Le Bonheur D’Elza, simply Elza in its American release, stands as a watershed moment just in terms of its existence, being the first narrative film by a female Guadeloupean director, Mariette Monpierre, and one that’s currently sweeping numerous film festivals, particularly festivals devoted to African film. It’s garnered three awards at the Pan African Festival in Los Angeles, and a nomination both for the Best Diaspora film at the Africa Movie Academy Awards 2012 (a fascinating category in its own right) and for Best Feature at the French Afro-Caribbean Arts Award 2011.To its credit, Elza is both highly aware of the cultural weight it clearly carries and refuses to be bogged down by it as so many similar films are. By way of synopsis, the main plot of the film follows Elza, Stana Roumillac in a deeply heartfelt performance, a woman born in Guadeloupe but raised in Paris who, following her achievement as the first college graduate of the family, decides to return to Guadeloupe in search of her father, a man she barely remembers. Despite her mother’s objections, by minute five of the film Elza has arrived on the island and quickly begins her search.Impressive as her historical achievements are, Monpierre deserves praise simply for the incredible balancing act she performs therein, the skill of her direction. For instance, the very opening shot of the film is a close up on Elza’s wild, kinky, bushy hair, before Elza herself looks up, flashing the camera a beautiful smile. Though funny, this shot isn’t merely facetious. Immediately, Monpierre has introduced the notion of race, though not through skin, the typical method, but through hair. Doing it sideways like this sets up the racial element of Elza, approached similarly from the side, examined as it relates to Elza’s actual story instead of forced into the work. This shot also serves to introduce us to Elza as a character, a beautiful, passionate, energetic, facetious, willful and perhaps deceptive young woman whose complexity more than earns the hour and a half focusing almost exclusively on her and her attempt to heal the wound left by her missing father, which wound she attempts to heal by pretending to be a babysitter for her father’s granddaughter, thus sneaking her way into the family circle.Which brings us to her father, Mr. Desire, played by Vincent Byrd Le Sage, whose excellent performance matches Stana Roumillac’s every step of the way. A wealthy businessman with a white wife and two children, Desire highlights the other subtle social element of the film, the class division, which plays heavily into the race division. But, while never shied away from, again this social element is highlighted as it pertains to Elza’s story. Monpierre’s discipline throughout is perhaps the greatest secret to the overall success of the film – it’s clear she has many more movies to make, and doesn’t make the rookie mistake of trying to make them all at once, instead weaving social issues into the film to highlight Guadeloupe and its mysterious role in shaping Elza, after initially leaving it and now coming back to it.This same discipline is used in the incredibly complex characterizations that populate the work, from Elza and her father, to his wife, his daughters and the woman he is currently cheating with. Particularly admirable is the portrayal by Christophe Cherki of Bernard, the husband of one of Mr. Desire’s daughters, a philanderer who quickly sets his eyes on Elza, using his discovery of her deception against her. Always, a man who could easily be played as a creep and nothing more, is portrayed in full human dimension, a complex, weak man, whose faults are never forgotten but are also never judged. The same for Mr. Desire, who has left children like Elza all around Guadeloupe for years, moving from woman to woman and abandoning his children with each subsequent move, all while ignoring or otherwise degrading his white wife. His growing realization of Elza’s secret motives, the developing connection between them both, is one of the great strengths of the film, a complex, difficult, ambiguous relationship, in the way that both characters are complex, difficult, and ambiguous themselves, and, again, Monpierre has the discipline to allow them to remain all of those things, even as she develops and broadens them into fully realized human beings.It should be noted before I continue in well-deserved praise, however, that Elza is not a perfect film. Happily, its mistakes are few and minor. It’s important to remember that this is Monpierre’s first narrative film, and the viewer can feel it. There are just a few parts where the film feels like a first film, and we realize the hands we are in are not quite as sure as they could be. Ultimately, this fact makes me glad, as it shows the incredible potential of Monpierre, already at the helm of an astounding film and sure to make many more over her career.Elza premieres the 29th of November in America at the New York African Film Festival, and hopefully will find other venues throughout the country. A delicate, emotionally complex, deeply satisfying film, Elza comes highly recommended, a worthy exploration of culture, identity and family that deftly weaves all three, and more, into an incredible tapestry of beautiful filmmaking, concise characterization and skillful storytelling.
