Divine Body

This debut feature by a Belgian woman director traces the trajectory of a battered old Peugeot exported from Belgium to Benin (West Africa), where its white owner, an economic development adviser, hands it on to his black houseboy. Frequently in for repairs, the car is run into the ground as a makeshift taxi and eventually left to be scavenged for its parts by the roadside - whereupon its remains are recycled by an artist who has been asked to fashion a sculpture of the god of nightwatchmen. The vague air of portentousness that hangs over a mainly lightweight film is offset by the modest charm of its glimpses of village life and people. But the overriding sense of 'us' and 'them' leaves it uncomfortably close to Jamie Uys territory.