Review of Black and White in Color (1976) by David F — 21 May 2011

Clever little satire of colonialism and the absurdity of war. Small group of French missionaries and traders living in equatorial Africa learn that World War I has broken out, and decide to raise a native army to attack a nearby German garrison.

Planning the attack out as a grand adventure, complete with picnics and parasols, the excursion does rather badly until a serious young scholar takes matters into his own hands. Director Annaud seems to take great delight in cynically skewering inflated French patriotism, bourgeois provincialism and condescending notions of superiority over the local natives, who are portrayed as the only reasonable people taking part in (or more specifically being coerced into) the whole affair.