The Madwoman of Toujane

The Madwoman of Toujane

1974 · 150 min · ★ 8.7 · Drama

This rambling political melodrama tells the story of a French Breton who learns about colonialism while teaching native students in France's colonies of Tunisia and Algeria and returns to his native Brittany to see that the same conditions prevail there.

Directed by René Vautier

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Fort Du Conquet Destruction of the Vautier ArchivesFort Du Conquet Destruction of the Vautier Archives · 1983
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Resistance fighter under the occupation, committed to the FLN during the Algerian war, member of the Medvedkine group after May 1968 and defender of Breton autonomy, René Vautier was a committed filmmaker, author of an anti-colonialist work in which he denounces the repression, torture and racism. In 1983, René Vautier discovered, by the light of a flashlight, his films cut up and scattered at Fort du Conquet. Police also came to check the damage.
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Divided into five parts, this film traces the long strike by workers at the Caravelair caravan factory in Trigniac, near Saint-Nazaire, led by the C.G.T. and C.F.D.T. unions. Shot in 1975, the film achieved the strange feat of being produced entirely by workers' producers - 15,000 of them paid in advance for their tickets - and of being amortized, and even made profitable, by being shown outside the commercial circuit alone.
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The owner of a luxurious yacht seduces attractive women to deliver them to a black crew member.
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A filmmaker witnesses an act of racist police violence in Paris. He discusses with a friend whether and how he should make a film out of this.
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When the three popes of militant film in Brittany, grouped together in the Union of Breton Film Production (UPCB), respond with talent to an order from fishermen's bosses... Le poisson commande includes some very beautiful images of the work at sea, as well as being an apology for industrial fishing. People of Lorient will be able to discover a fishing port then in full activity.
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