France 2021, 83 min, French, Hebrew & English subtitles
Up until the death of his father, with whom he had a difficult, murky relationship, sociologist Didier Eribon did not dare go back to the childhood home he had spent his life trying to detach from. His family and the people he had grown up with seemed to him like sad, ignorant, small-minded country bumpkins. In his book “Returning to Reims” he describes how ashamed he had felt about his past—until he came home and, through his mother’s stories, learned to see a different reality. Using fascinating archive footage, director Jean-Gabriel Périot brings this reality to life. He shows the child labor, the discrimination, the poverty, and the systemic marginalization that condemns people to a life of ignorance, racism, and fear. This story is bigger than Eribon’s family; it traces the continuous struggle of the entire French working class.
Previous Festivals: Festival de Cannes, NYFF
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