The iconic luminous yellow sleeveless jackets sported by French protestors helped define the country’s recent grass roots uprising. With elections looming this summer, and France (along with the rest of the world) assailed by financial hardship, this examination of a modern protest movement as seen from the inside makes for timely viewing as it exposes the methods, aims and inner contradictions of the Gilets Jaunes.
On November 17 2018 in France, hundreds of thousands demonstrated against a new ‘eco’ tax on fuel. Very soon the dramatically widening protest proved to be the expression of a much deeper anger. Across France, roundabouts were occupied by people known as the Yellow Jackets…‘les Gilets Jaunes’…a new-born movement made up of a multitude of groups.
This film tells the story of the Yellow Jackets within one particular French town. Over six months, filmmaker Emmanuel Gras (Makala, 2017) embedded with the Yellow Jackets in the northern provincial city of Chartres to try and understand this modern popular uprising of folk who felt neglected by the state and who were determined to bring matters into their own hands – and show that social change can come from below.
Speaking to an enthusiastic and determined group in the middle of their roundabout back at home, leader Benoit Le Cam says: “Your fervour and solidarity keeps growing, and that’s great…and I see we’re really united. There’s more to do. It’s not over…all of you can be proud of your struggle and for standing up to this oppressive system. What do we want? Justice…that’s all.”
In a self-consciously ironic camera movement, as Benoit points out that “not all know” about the struggle, Gras pans to a well-lit gym across the road from the roundabout where people keenly work-out on running machines, seemingly unaware of what is happening in front of them.
Gras then follows hard-core members of the Chartres movement as they dismantle a barrier at a toll station and tape over a camera, telling motorists it is free to use; sit in a cafe to discuss their upcoming plans and the structure of their organisation; worry about whether they might be dismissed as “lazy losers’ who simply hand out at roundabouts, and eventually head to Paris to join other Gilets Jaunes from around the country for a registered march that descends into scuffles with riot police.
Over the six months of filming, Gras sees himself both in the midst of riots and police-orchestrated tear-gas attacks in Paris as well as detailing the very real worries and hardships that have driven ordinary people to finally take a stand. As the months draw on, some people drift away and later when he films an unsanctioned protest in Paris, it is clear that internal divisions have had an impact on the underlying support for the movement.
Toward the end Gras presents an overhead shot of the Chartres roundabout, now empty of Yellow Jackets, the grass scorched in places from when group bonfires were lit. At the brightly illuminated Basic Fit gym across from the roundabout the runners still run on their treadmill, still oblivious to the protests that have been taking place.
But with the French presidential elections just around the corner, look out for the Yellow Jackets to start assembling again. In many parts of the country these very French protests are likely to return, as the poor, the elderly and the disenfranchised are hit more and more by rising costs. In France, the widespread protests of the Yellow Jackets have, since 2017, evoked memories of the country’s proud revolutionary history.
France, 2022, 104 mins
Dir: Emmanuel Gras
Production: Les Films Velvet
International sales: Best Friend Forever
Producer: Frederic Jouve
Cinematography: Emmanuel Gras
Editor: Karen Benainous
