After many years living in France, a young woman returns to the city in Cameroon where she grew up. She is assailed by memories of her childhood, in particular of Protée, the Black servant who formed a fiercely loyal friendship with her. The semi-autobiographical Chocolat, Claire Denis’s debut in feature-lengths, uses the connections between its four main characters as a base on which to build a complex map of political, social and racial dynamics in colonial Africa. The approach and themes in this film would become central to Denis’s filmography.