Following his strong foray into fiction with “Hope,” director Boris Lojkine goes even further in weaving his documentary origins onto a fictional structure with “Camille,” a powerful biopic of Fren…
,” a powerful biopic of French photojournalist Camille Lepage, who was killed in the Central African Republic in 2014 at the age of 26. While adopting a standard biopic structure that occasionally stumbles into the formulaic, Lojkine foregrounds his strengths by presenting a nuanced picture of the usual white European do-gooder in Africa, opening the film up to ambiguity and complexity.
While functioning as an homage to Lepage, the film is also a critique of the white-savior-in-Africa cliché: Camille quickly learns that her photos won’t effect change, but they will humanize a conflict.
At this stage Camille is still idealistic, believing she can make a difference, which is why she’s almost offended when she’s told by a group of seasoned male photojournalists that she needs to erect a psychological barrier between herself and her subjects, since she can’t really imagine what they’re going through.
By then, Camille has already seen morgues overflowing with bodies, but that’s just the start. She’s witness to a lynching, a castration, a man having his head crushed by a rock, all of which she photographs, knowing that she mustn’t flinch while recording the truth.
In what must have been a punishing shoot, Meurisse embodies Lepage exactly as we imagine her: Friendly, naïve, committed and certain of the fundamental value of her outlook even as she strives to realize it in her work. Her vulnerability dovetails with the energy she imbibes from being in Africa, and the actress works easily with the mix of professionals and nonprofessionals. Lojkine again pairs with cinematographer Elin Kirschfink but this time uses a 1.
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