WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE FRANCE - news journal UPDATE - (en) France, UCL AL #357 - Culture - See Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma: Their Children After Them (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 Nicolas Mathieu is an award-winning novelist. Born in Épinal, in the

Vosges region, he is well-versed in the working-class world of eastern
France and knows how to tell its story. His novels are primarily set in
Lorraine, in the region of the no-longer-burning blast furnaces. His
work notably addresses the consequences of uncontrolled
deindustrialization on the French working class. He also examines the
tense and violent relationships between social classes. ---- After his
first novel, "Aux animaux la guerre"[1], which was the subject of a
television series recounting the workers' struggle against a factory
closure, another of his books is now being adapted for film. Their
Children After Them, winner of the 2018 Prix Goncourt, observes, as a
logical progression, the consequences of the destruction of the steel
industry on families and teenagers during the 1990s.

Cut with a knife, the film[2]deserves to be seen, as it is rare in
France for the working class to be a subject of cinema. A violent
naturalism depicts families brutalized by life, linked to a splendid
performance by the father (Gilles Lellouche), an alcoholic, powerless to
control his outbursts of anger that terrorize his wife (the excellent
Ludivine Sagnier) and their son Anthony (Paul Kircher).

The film follows the book's division into four periods, four-year
correspondences between the teenager and his family, from 1992 to 1994,
1996, and 1998. We follow Anthony's family life from the ages of 12 to
20. The soundtrack references emblematic music from these successive eras.

And yet, Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma's film leaves a certain unease: the
plot mechanism, a merciless chain of inevitable dramas, ultimately
descends into excessive pathos that undermines the credibility of the
story. And the attempt at a happy ending, set against the backdrop of
France's "Black-White-Arab" victory in 1998, is unconvincing. Perhaps
it's better to read the book!

Jean-Yves (UCL Limousin)

Ludovic Boukherma, Zoran Boukherma, Their Children After Them, December
2024, 2h30.

Validate

[1]War on Animals, Actes Sud, "Actes noirs" collection, 2014, 369
pages), reissued by Actes Sud, "Babel noir" collection, 2021, 448 pages.

[2]Their Children After Them, Actes Sud, "Actes noirs" collection, 2021,
448 pages. "French Domain", 2018, 432 pages, reissued by Actes Sud,
"Babel" collection, 2020, 560 pages.

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Debat-L-antispecisme-une-lutte-a-developper
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