Un homme est mort

They make their war-ravaged cities in northern France habitable again and yet can hardly live off their work: the construction workers in Brest after the Second World War. They no longer want to put up with the rationed food and living in abject shacks. They retaliate by striking and demonstrating, also among them are the friends Edouard, Désiré and P’tit Zef. When Edouard is shot by the police during a demonstration, P’tit Zef wants to take up arms himself. But there is also Paulette, with whom he is secretly in love. And then a film-maker commissioned by the labour unions appears to report on the workers’ strife and their difficult working conditions. This results in new possibilities for dealing with injustice: the idea of a travelling cinema…
Edouard Mazé and P’tit Zef are historically documented individuals, as well as the cinematographer René Vautier. Their engagement had already served as the basis for a graphic novel in 2006, written by Kris (Christophe Goret) and illustrated by Etienne Davodeau. Using this as a model and drawing on his many years of experience in designing visual effects, Olivier Cossu has now realised his first animation film with a modest budget. Both the graphic novel and the film bear the title of the poem written by Paul Eluard about the resistance movement against the German occupation during the Second World War: “Un homme est mort” tells about how life, filming and writing can make amends. Using the classic ligne claire technique and subtle hues, the film captures the light of the Breton coastal region just as accurately as the scenes from the workers’ everyday lives. An encouraging testimony to the effectiveness of standing up for social change. (sch)