Caché - Thriller About The Legacy Of French Colonialism

On one level Caché (Hidden) is a dark thriller. Georges (Daniel Auteuil) and Anne (Juliette Binoche), a bourgeois Parisian couple live in a comfortable home with their adolescent son, Pierrot (Lester Makedonsky). One day an anonymous videotape turns up on their doorstep, showing their house under surveillance from across the street, and their calm life begins to spiral out of control. Subsequent videotapes arrive, accompanied by mysterious drawings, and gradually Georges becomes convinced that he's being tormented by a figure from his past. But when he confronts him, the man assures Georges he is innocent. A growing sense of guilt begins to rise in Georges as he recalls his less-than-angelic childhood, yet for some reason he's unable to be completely honest with Anne. Soon, their happy home is an emotional battleground, leading to a climax that is breathtaking in its ferocity and ambiguousness.

On another level the film is a political allegory about the enduring legacy of French colonialism in Algeria and other parts of Africa. George's growing guilt reflects the French national conscience, and his growing unease the state of a society on the edge. The legacy of French colonialism is still very much alive and it can be found in the deprived and forgotten inhabitants of the banlieues who are constantly ignored and discriminated against by bourgeois French middle-class society. Interestingly, the film premiered at the beginning of October 2005 - just a couple of weeks before the beginning of the Paris riots.

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