A key member of the new wave of female French directors, Claire Denis toiled for more than 10 years as an assistant director before winning international acclaim with her first feature film, "Chocolat" (1988), a semi-autobiographical tale of a young French girl in Africa. "Chocolat", co-written with Jean-Pol Fargeau, was a meditation on colonialism. The woman returning to Africa is driven by an American black and the intertwining of their stories links the pair to the continent through issues of native identity. It was the official French entry in the Cannes Film Festival.A graduate of the
