Chocolat

Chocolat (2016) is a French period drama you can watch online on iFILM. Roschdy Zem reconstructs the rise and fall of Rafael Padilla — billed as Chocolat, the first Black performer to become a headliner on the Paris stage around the turn of the twentieth century.

Once enslaved, then grinding away in a small provincial circus, he teams up with a fading white clown named Footit. Their double act detonates: all of Belle Époque Paris wants tickets, and the money pours in. But the laughs come at a price. The bit that sells is the white clown beating the Black one, and the crowds love it. Gambling, easy cash, and daily humiliation slowly corrode the partnership and the man himself as Padilla starts to see exactly what his fame is built on.

Omar Sy plays Chocolat largely through body and gaze rather than dialogue, while James Thiérrée — Chaplin's grandson — turns Footit into a jittery ringmaster. Zem skips the tidy biopic gloss and shows how a racist gag got packaged as entertainment. Watch Chocolat online on iFILM.