"The final shot shows someone reading Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth. I found myself thinking of Zadie Smith's essay on Jordan Peele's Get Out in which she references Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks. The setting is the 90s, in which half-heard stories on the TV news about Rwanda and OJ have an unstressed racial dimension. We are in Sag Harbor in New York state, a neighbourhood with strong African American community:"
"Corey Hawkins plays a troubled black man called Charles Blakey who lives alone in a handsome but neglected house which has been in his family for eight generations. Charles nursed his late mother and uncle there, but rashly took out a loan against the property; and now, unable to get a job due to a question mark over his honesty and unable to make the mortgage repayments, he may lose this roof over his head."
"A local antiques expert Narciss Gully (Anna Diop) tells him his late mother's possessions might be worth a good deal, especially her collection of west African masks, but the cash could take some time. Charles needs money now. And it is at this moment that a mysterious, charmingly persuasive yet sinister white businessman called Anniston Bennet, potently played by Willem Dafoe, shows up at his door, offering him $50,000 in cash in return for renting his basement for a couple of months."
The film functions as a surreal, ambiguous parable about racism, capitalism, exploitation and the historically hidden violence underpinning ownership. The setting is 1990s Sag Harbor, where a Black homeowner, Charles Blakey, faces mortgage default after mortgaging his family house. An antiques expert suggests valuable possessions, but cash is delayed. A charismatic yet sinister white businessman, Anniston Bennet, offers immediate $50,000 to rent the basement, prompting Charles to accept. The arrangement brings strange luggage, invasive presence and escalates into a nightmarish psychological conflict. The narrative culminates with an image of Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth, invoking decolonial and racial theory.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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