Dalready in his first film Roxane, the struggle of an egg producer who made his hens happy by telling them about Cyrano, the young director Mélanie Auffret stood out for her original approach, her unique style, her subtle directing of the actors, Guillaume de Tonquédec, Léa Drucker and Lionel Abelanski second function, The small victories goes in the same direction, addressing the desertification of the French countryside – those lost lands – and the often-forgotten issue of illiteracy.
A certain neglected France seen through the everyday life of a teacher and mayor of a small Breton village who fights day and night for its inhabitants. Alice (Julia Platon) must also save her school from closing, reopen a bakery, become a social worker, a nurse, even a sexologist, a road worker…
The spontaneous arrival of Émile (Michel Blanc), a grumpy sixty-year-old who has decided to learn to read and write, in his class will change many things. For Alice, a sort of Republican soldier, it is not a question of ostracizing them or abandoning these citizens who are also investing in the survival of their village. Like Saturnin (Lionel Abelanski), his deputy at City Hall, Bruno (Bruno Raffaelli), Pauline (India Hair) and Jeanine (Marie-Pierre Casey), who regret the time “when there was still a doctor! »
Illiteracy in focus
Mélanie Auffret came up with the idea of telling the story of an exemplary young woman during a meeting. That with Fanny Lacroix, mayor of Châtel-En-Trièves, a small town with 500 inhabitants in the Isère. “She’s a single mom with boundless energy whose determination and courage blew me away immediately. Her journey largely inspired the character of Alice. The peculiarity of the phenomenon of desertification is that it provokes others. The migration of the population to the big cities not only leads to a loss of activity, but also to a loss of social ties. Above all, it is the shops that are closing and moving, the places to socialize that are becoming rare, access to first aid that is being restricted, and then the schools that are closing. Today, almost 60% of rural communities no longer have local suppliers,” says the director.
ALSO READCinema: What is “La Syndicalist” with Isabelle Huppert worth?Originally from Plescop in Morbihan, Mélanie Auffret visited 80 villages before being selected. “The Juch has become obvious,” she says. I was struck by the contrast between the beauty of its streets, its greenery, its buildings and the social and economic reality it touches: it is a tightrope village that struggles every day to maintain its social cohesion and attractiveness. At Juch there were up to ten bistros, two butchers, two bakeries. Even at home, an incredible elected official struggled to keep his school open. »
Another issue that the film addresses very strongly: illiteracy, which affects almost 7% of the population of our country. “Here too, the filmmaker adds, I wanted to document my approach. I met Jeannette, Philippe, Marie-Claude, Aline… They all went back to school as adults. Hence the idea of the character of Émile, constantly on the defensive, unhappy, grumpy and who will socialize in contact with the children in the class while learning to read and write at 65. .
No militancy in this comedy, which won two prizes at the last Alpe d’Huez Festival, but a relentless observation of the not new phenomenon of “lost territories” and an administration that often ignores the reality on the ground. Like this academy inspector who decides that below a certain number of students the Kerguen school should be closed. The absurd responds to System D and the solidarity of women and men united by the same desire not to disappear. Mélanie Auffret gives them the floor through a fine troupe of actors. These are their small victories.
“Small victories”, indoors.
