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English Titles S

Strike or Die

Original title: Grève ou crève
German title: Strike or Die *
France, 2020

Director: Rescigno, Jonathan
Production company: Supermouche Productions
Length: 93 min.
Film genre: Documentary

Synopsis:
In his hometown, a former industrial site in Lorraine, Jonathan Rescigno follows individual people and draws loose connections between their stories. Two friends, sons of Arab immigrants, pass their time idling at local fairs and discos. Another man donates smoke grenades and helmets to the mining museum, mementoes of miners’ strikes in the 1980s and ‘90s. Another has had an accident at work and doesn’t know how to respond to the false statements his boss has put in the insurance report. An older coach works with young boxers, training them for a fight. Archive video material showing the escalating mining strikes separates these narrative threads. Little by little, relationships develop between the individual stories, with questions emerging about labour struggles, solidarity and the shifting meanings of these terms in the present day. Clouds of mist pass through the film again and again: across workers’ estates, through the museum, past the one-time headquarters of the mine. Is the struggle over, or it is still smouldering? Or is something altogether new gathering on the horizon?

Festivals:
Berlin IFF 2020, Shanghai IFF 2020 (special mention), Gijon IFF 2020

World sales address/es:
Taskovski Films (GB)