Director

Stéphane Brizé

France | 2018 | 113 min | French

• Producer Christophe Rossignon , Phillip Boëffard
• Production Company Nord-Ouest Films
• Screenplay Stéphane Brizé, Olivier Gorce
• Cinematography Eric Dumont
• Editing Anne Klotz
• Sound Hervé Guyader , Emmanuelle Villard
• Cast Vincent Lindon , Jacques Borderie, Bruno Bourthol, Valérie Lamond
• Contacts

  MK2 Films

  intlsales@mk2.com,

  mk2films.com

About the Film

With At War, director Stephane Brizé adds a fourth cinematographic essay to his three previous films dealing with the drama of working-class men and women, in their struggle to maintain dignity and self-determination in the face of social and economic changes that threaten their way of life. Actor Vincent Lindon, winner of the Cannes Best Actor Award for his role in Brizé’s 2015 film The Measure of a Man, rejoins Brizé for an outstanding performance as the protagonist in the film’s principal conflict, the eternal tension between labor and capital.

The film is framed by the decision of the owners to shut down all operations at their automobile plant in Agen, France, despite onerous financial sacrifices workers have made to keep the company doing well — forgone bonuses and unpaid work hours in return for a guarantee of additional employment of five years. After many promises are broken, Laurent Amédéo becomes the union spokesperson for 1,100 employees who refuse to accept the decision of the far-off German management company. At first buoyed by the unity and passion, the workers’ movement begins to founder as some workers drift back to work, pushed by economic necessity and pulled by attractive buy-out offers. Laurent holds fast, and the film ends with a surprising, somewhat deus ex machina coda.

A key artistic decision was Brizé’s call to use non-professional actors to play opposite Vincent Lindon. «The veracity of their life experience lets me create a representation of reality that I find very moving,» says the socially engaged director. This unexpectedly effective juxtaposition of the trained and the untrained, combined with Director of Photography Eric Dumont’s use of handheld camera footage, give At War a genuine cinéma vérité feel that adds much to its realistic tone.

Nicole Guillemet