A French Revolution
PerSo Award

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

On November 17, 2018, I heard about the roundabout blockades and saw pictures of the demonstrations. Like many others, I was intrigued by this mobilization and, the following Saturday, I went to the Parisian demonstration to see who these already famous “Yellow Vest” were. There I saw people who did not look like the leftists I saw taking to the streets. Most came from the provinces and arrived in the capital in small groups, finding themselves on the road to the Champs-Élysées. There I saw them erect barricades and set them on fire while they sang the Marseillaise. Outside the union framework, without the security services to regulate the anger, I discovered people who call themselves “the people” and who assert their legitimacy, as such, to take possession of this symbol of French power and wealth that it is this large avenue that leads to the Arc de Triomphe.

I had never seen such an expression of popular revolt. But this event was not a favorable moment for meeting and discussion. Later I looked for a roundabout not too far from Paris to be able to go there regularly by train. I found myself on the outskirts of Chartres and went to meet the Yellow Vests present at a roundabout. There were about thirty of them and they welcomed me warmly. More than making a film, I really wanted to understand first. They had a lot to say. They talked about the difficulties of daily life, those of each month, the humiliation experienced, the feeling of being forgotten. I was not simply meeting a reality I knew little about, but I was finding out what they had to say publicly: people who for the first time took the floor to launch their experience in front of the world.