DISPATCH — Undercover cop falls in love of a ZADist on Disney+, a group of American teenagers show in detail how to blow up a pipeline in “Sabotage”: ZAD and radical struggles for the environment are taking over the screens this summer.
We left François Civil and Lyna Khoudri as D'Artagnan and Mrs. Bonacieux exchanging a chaste kiss, at the end of the first part of “The Three Musketeers” at spring. Things move much faster between them in “Une Zone à Défende”, a melodrama set against the backdrop of the environmental struggle, which comes out Friday on Disney+.
In the film, François Civil plays Greg, a young and ambitious secret agent in the service of Internal Intelligence, tasked with infiltrating a community living autonomously that is fighting against the construction of a dam.
As soon as he arrives, he falls under the spell of the dreadlocks of Myriam (Lyna Khoudri), one of the most experienced activists of the Zad. From this encounter a baby will be born, of which Greg, having left for other missions, will only learn of the existence months later.
Will the undercover cop betray his mission for her ? Will Myriam choose between the fight and love ?
“What can be the image of an impossible love in the 21st century ?”, wonders the film's director, Romain Cogitore, in an interview with AFP. He explains that he was inspired in particular by a vast scandal of infiltration of left-wing or environmentalist groups by British police officers, some of whom had children with their targets.
The “Zones to Defend” and other autonomous communities have until now been the subject of few popular fictions, or at least to the fourteenth degree, as in the comedy “Problemos”, by Eric Judor (2017).
In the United States, director Kelly Reichardt took the risk ten years ago with “Night Moves,” in which Jesse Eisenberg led a clandestine operation against a dam.
“I wanted to be extremely faithful, not to be out of touch,” says Romain Cogitore, who for this purpose immersed himself in one of the largest ZADs in France, where he “explained his project” to activists.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000“I'm not the only one who wants to tell the story of the ZAD or the involvement of activists, but it's complicated in the production system. We're told that it's not glamorous,” he continues.
Ironically, it's ultimately Disney+, a platform owned by a multinational entertainment, symbol of triumphant capitalism, which allowed the film to be made.
“They dove head first (into the project) because they liked it. The why and how, I don't know. It's still a joyful surprise on my part,” says the filmmaker, who hopes to reach a wide audience.
A hope shared by the American director of “Sabotage,” which is due out in around a hundred theaters on July 26.
The film could get people talking: it's presented as an adaptation of the environmentalist essay “How to Sabotage a Pipeline.” This book by the Swede Andreas Malm was cited in support of the government's dissolution in mid-June of the Earth Uprising movement, which it is said to have inspired.
In “Sabotage”, a group of young Americans disgusted by the ineffectiveness of nonviolent militant actions decide to make explosives to blow up a pipeline in Texas.
Their preparation is described in the menu. Does the film advocate violence, as the Earth Uprisings, supported by the left as well as environmental and human rights groups, have been accused of doing ?
“If someone blows up a pipeline, it won't be because of the film they saw. But because the human species must defend itself against the greatest existential threat since the beginning of its history,” namely climate change, the director, Daniel Goldhaber, told AFP.
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