The White Elephant

Back in 1960, over 2,000 people, 180 of them Belgian, worked in the Kinshasa Post Office in the former Belgian colony of Congo. Nowadays, the political situation has changed and the impressive white colonial building has all but crumbled to the ground. White Elephant is a fascinating and poetic portrait of staff and customers in this decaying government edifice, one of the last bureaucratic relics of a colonial history - and one that cannot be said to be doing a roaring trade. Without a voice-over, the director films staff members, interspersing these scenes with still-life shots of various parts of the dilapidated post office. Old mailbags rot away in the corner, post office boxes have become paper recycling bins, and the sorting area is littered with unidentified letters and packages. Staff members wonder whether an end will ever come to their way of life and they are determined to save their workplace - and if possible, to change it. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)