Grandpuits & petites victoires
- 2011
- 1h 20m
YOUR RATING
Photos
- Director
- Writer
- Olivier Azam(uncredited)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaFrench visa # 130148.
Featured review
A day-to-day chronicle of a major social conflict
In October 2010, workers and employees of French refineries went on strike to protest against the pension reform wanted by the government of Nicolas Sarkozy and the National Confederation of French Employers. Their means of pressure to get the government to backtrack, consisted in creating oil shortage which, if joined by the other French refineries, would mean blocking the country.
Interested in this major social conflict, Olivier Azam decided to follow it on a daily basis. He and his crew arrived on the scene on the tenth day and started filming the protesters until the end of the strike two weeks and a half later.
No doubt about it, the director chooses his side, that of the strikers and mainly one union, the CGT (General Confederation of Workers). The result is a film that is committed and, by definition, one-sided. It does not give a voice to the opposing camp, except for a phone call to the manager of the refinery who (in the director's defense) refuses to speak, arguing that the refiners' struggle has nothing to do with working conditions in the company. Knowing this, if you're waiting for an in-depth study on this strike you'd better move on to something else. But if you agree to join the group of activists and to witness their struggle for social justice, you will share their daily lives, their determination and doubts, their hopes and fears, their unity and dissensions... as if you were part of it. Immersion is indeed the main quality of this report which, not content to express social and political ideas, knows how to capture the humanity of the protagonists, I am thinking in particular of this astonishing scene where a striker expresses his delight in front of the generosity of the French who support the movement financially and morally: the brightness in his eyes on the verge of tears, the delighted smile are quite in the line of an American-style sentimental film... except that this is reality!
The film is well made, the editing skillful and meaningful. As a result, the interest, despite the austere subject, is sustained from start to finish. All in all, a valuable document on a great moment of workers' struggle, which should be taken for what it is, a day-to-day chronicle rather than a complete study of the situation seen from different angles.
helpful•00
- guy-bellinger
- Oct 7, 2020
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Filming locations
- Paris, France(demonstrations)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour 20 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.78 : 1
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