Les Neiges du Kilimandjaro (2011)
Directed by Robert Guédiguian

Film Review

For the past five years or so, director Robert Guédiguian has strayed ever further from his home territory as he strives to expand the scope of his oeuvre.  Far from the sunny working class precincts of Marseille, he has illuminated us on the last days of President Mitterand (in Le Promeneur du champ de Mars, 2005), taken us on a whistle stop tour of Armenia (in Le Voyage en Arménie) and subjected us to the traumas of the Nazi Occupation (in L'Armée du crime, 2009).  Now, visibly refreshed and invigorated by this eventful detour, Guédiguian is back where he started, to regale us with another of his social realist fables set in his beloved Marseille.  Taking his inspiration from a poem (Les pauvres gens) by Victor Hugo, the director once again occupies himself with the problems of the ordinary working class man and woman and, along the way, he delivers a sombre meditation on the failure of the socialist dream to unite the working classes.   Whilst the film is every bit as politically minded as Guédiguian's previous films and touches on some highly pertinent social issues, it is far from being just a piece of political posturing.   As in much of the director's work, Les Neiges du Kilimandjaro is essentially about ordinary human beings discovering their own worth and coming to terms with a world that is changing too fast for them.   Blazing with truth, poetry and humanity, it is a film that appeals as much to the heart as it does to the intellect, and it cannot fail to leave a lasting impression on anyone who watches it.

The film's title derives not from Hemingway's famous short story but from a popular song of the 1960s by Pascal Danel (Il n'ira pas beaucoup plus loin / La nuit viendra bientôt / Il voit là-bas dans le lointain / Les neiges du Kilimandjaro...).  It alludes to the impossibility of ever attaining Utopia in this world, in particular the socialist dream that the main characters in the film (beautifully portrayed by Ariane Ascaride and Jean-Pierre Darroussin) have devoted their lives to.  These characters have something in common with the dying hero of Hemingway's story - so entrenched are they in their political beliefs that they have perhaps ceased to comprehend what socialism really means.  Where they end up is a long, long way from where they started, as struggling, hard-pressed, victimised workers.  Now reasonably well off, they can look forward to a long and comfortable retirement.  They might even be mistaken for bourgeois.  It takes a horrific turn of events for them to realise what they have become and how far removed they now are from today's poorly paid workers, many of whom do not have the luxury of a trade union to fight their battles and protect them from unscrupulous employers.  The Utopian delusion melts away faster than the snows of Kilimanjaro ever could when Marie-Claire and Michel wake up in the real world and see how spectacularly their notion of socialism has failed to change anything.  Like the hero in Hemingway's story they are left wondering: what was it all for?

Certainly, the film is a timely commentary on the failure of socialism to protect the rights of workers and create a just and fair society.  Yet it is clearly far more than this.  Its central thrust is not political but humanist - it explores, with surprising insight and compassion, the difference being acting good and being good.   On the face of it, the two main characters, Marie-Claire and Michel, appear to be the very epitome of goodness.  They have worked hard all their lives and have devoted themselves to helping others, not just their family and friends, but also their fellow workers.  But doing good things is not the same thing as being good, as is apparent from the couple's immediate reaction to being robbed at gunpoint.  There is no question of turning the other cheek.  They want, if not revenge, justice, and who can blame them?   It is not long before Michel uncovers the identity of his attacker and he has no qualms about handing him over to the police.  It is only when Michel finds out the motives for the robbery that his nobler instincts begin to reassert themselves.  He becomes a good man not by doing a good deed but by looking inwards and finding the courage to forgive a pathetic wretch whose crime was motivated by cruel necessity rather than malice.  Michel's journey is the most harrowing that Robert Guédiguian has so far taken us on, but it is one that ends in the right place, perhaps not at the summit of Kilimanjaro, but somewhere not far off, with an even grander vista.

Film Synopsis

In Marseille, Michel is a committed trade unionist who has been happily married to Marie-Claire for thirty years.  When he learns that his employer is about to make several redundancies, he organises lots to decide who will lose their jobs.  Michel does not hesitate to include himself in the lottery and resigns himself to an early retirement when his name is drawn.  The bitter pill of losing his job is sweetened by a grand party, organised by his friends and family to celebrate his wedding anniversary.  But, not long after the party, Michel and Marie-Claire have another shock.  Two masked men break into their house and threaten them at gunpoint, taking not only their credit cards but also their wedding rings.  It is the worst day of their lives and naturally Michel is determined to find his attackers and have them placed behind bars.  He can hardly believe it when he learns that one of the robbers is someone he knows, a young worker with whom he was made redundant.  When he understands something of the young man's terrible predicament, Michel begins to have a change of heart.  But do the stirrings of his conscience come too late?