Julien Johan

This iconic statue was a gift from France to the new-born American Republic and was the first crowd-funded monument of all time. A symbol of emancipation and freedom, which took two decades to be completed. The film features original 3D virtual reconstitutions of Auguste Bartholdi’s Atelier in Paris and travels back in time to bring viewers at the heart of the Statue’s original construction, revealing the founding ideals of our democracies.

April 15, 1874, boulevard des Capucines, Paris: a group of young feverish painters shunned by the official Salon and mocked by the classical masters, chose to come together to exhibit their paintings freely, in the studio of photographer Nadar. At the end of a teeming century, when modernity was emerging, this group of rebellious artists, revolutionized the world of art.

They grew up under the Nazi regime. They pledged to give their lives for Hitler. They were fanatics who would not be stopped. They were the 20,000 teenagers who made up the 12th SS Panzer Division. Unleashed in France to halt the Allied invasion, they would sow terror and destruction in their wake. Historical colorized archives and a handful of survivors tell us this story.

In 1945, twelve million homeless children wandered through the rubble of a Europe that had just emerged from the deadliest conflict it had ever known. An unprecedented number of children were separated from their parents or orphaned. Under the guise of the best interests of these children and of the nation, France, the United States, Great Britain and the countries of Central Europe embarked on a veritable race for children. By demographic opportunism, by fear of seeing them indoctrinated by a new totalitarianism, these countries move and adopt these orphans, erasing their history and their identity.

A documentary drama retelling the shift of Mitterand's policy. In May 1981, F.Mitterrand is elected President of the Republic, after more than twenty years in the opposition. He wants to change the life; he believes in the supremacy of politics over economics. He wants it to be fast and executes his programme to realise the socialist transformation. Two years later, Pierre Mauroy and Jacques Delors introduce an unprecedented austerity plan and open the parenthesis of austerity... that would never be closed.