Almayer's Folly

Chantal Akerman's 2011 film is adapted from Joseph Conrad's first novel. Almayer, a European trader, lives on a river in Southeast Asia and is fixed on finding a treasure that will secure his daughter's future. He sends Nina to a European-style school. Akerman moves the novel into the twentieth century and turns colonial ambition into a father's obsession. Almayer says he wants to save his daughter, but what he does is tear her from where she belongs; Nina can be neither European nor local. The telling is extremely slow. Long takes, scenes on the river, frames that barely move. That is Akerman's known manner, applied here in a tropical setting. It was her last fiction film. Who it's for: those who love Akerman and slow cinema. Who it's not for: viewers expecting narrative pace; the film is built on long silences and has almost no plot.