L'argent fait le bonheur

We Are Not Our Parents

Reserved by Citroën for immigrant workers, the Aulnay-sous-Bois factory experienced its first strike in 1982. Thirty years later, it's the turn of a new generation to join the fight. Worthy heirs of their parents, the workers revive a forgotten memory and offer a unique perspective on the history of contemporary France. Matteo Severi's film mirrors these two social struggles, led by workers from immigrant backgrounds.

Il était une fois Marseille

The heroine of this film is immortal. She is over 2600 years old. This is the self-portrait of the oldest city in France. A city whose landscapes bear the scars of a destiny that has spared it no trials. Gateway to the Orient, crossroads of trade and immigration, Marseille is a mosaic with 111 districts and 200 nationalities. Rebellious, chaotic, in turn desired, torn apart, transformed, it is reborn each time from its ashes. Marseille tells us more about the history of France and sheds light on what France is today.

The Most Precious of Cargoes

Once upon a time, a poor woodcutter and his wife lived in a great forest. Cold, hunger, poverty, and a war raging all around them meant their lives were very hard. One day, the woodcutter's wife rescues a baby. A baby girl thrown from one of the many trains that constantly pass through the forest. This baby, this "most precious of cargoes", will transform the lives of the poor woodcutter's wife and her husband, as well as those whose paths the child will cross—including the man who threw her from the train. And some will try to protect her, whatever the cost. Their story will reveal the worst and the best in the hearts of men.

The Marching Band

A world-famous orchestra conductor discovers the brother he never knew he had — a school cafeteria worker who plays trombone in a local marching band. Detecting his brother's exceptional musical talent, he takes it upon himself to rectify the injustice of fate.

Isabelle

Isabelle is an astronomer of French origin who lives in Italy in a large house surrounded by vineyards in the hills near Trieste. The sun shines on the countryside, the sea breaks on the rocky coast a few kilometers away, the landscape is paradise, and like every summer, her son Jérome will spend some time with her. Isabelle loves him very much and is ready to do anything for him, but her encounter with Davide, a young man going through a very difficult time, will turn their lives upside down. Isabelle will then have to make a choice that will inevitably lead to a painful outcome.

Dieu vomit les tièdes

Three men and a woman from a city in the south of France made a pact as teenagers to never forget that they were children of the poor.

Rouge midi

From 1920 to 1975, the hopes and disappointments of four generations of Italian immigrants living in a working-class district of Marseille.

The Big Hit

Etienne, an often out of work but endearing actor, runs a theater workshop in a prison, where he brings together an unlikely troupe of prisoners to stage Samuel Beckett’s famous play Waiting for Godot. When he is allowed to take the colorful band of convicts on a tour outside of prison, Etienne finally has the chance to thrive.

Leçon de Cinéma

My Sweet Pepper Land

Baran, a war hero, becomes sheriff of the capital and refuses to bow down to a tribal chief.

The Young Karl Marx

26 year-old Karl Marx embarks with his wife, Jenny, on the road to exile. In 1844 in Paris, he meets Friedrich Engels, an industrialist’s son, who has been investigating the sordid birth of the British working class. Engels, the dandy, provides the last piece of the puzzle to the young Karl Marx’s new vision of the world. Together, between censorship and the police’s repression, riots and political upheavals, they will lead the labor movement during its development into a modern era.

Marius and Jeannette

Jeannette is a single mother living in a working-class community in Marseilles; she tries to support herself and her two kids on her salary as a check-out girl at a supermarket and lives in an apartment complex where everyone is thrown into close proximity with everyone else. Marius is working as a security guard at a cement factory that has gone out of business; he's also squatting in the building, since the plant is soon to be demolished and he'll be needing his money later on. One day, Jeannette happens by the factory, and spotting several cans of paint, tries to take two of them home with her. Marius spots her and tries to chase her away, while she rails at him with curses against the capitalist system. The next day, an apologetic Marius appears at her doorstep, cans of paint in hand; the two soon become friendly, and a romance begins to bloom, though it quickly becomes obvious that Jeannette's romance novel fantasies are a bit off the mark from what Marius has in mind.

Last Summer

Gilbert, his brother Boule and some friends live in Estaque. Between carelessness, petty theft and social gloom, they feel like the outcasts of a society where Gilbert has no future. This is the "last summer" that he intends to spend there, dragging his idleness, nevertheless beginning a romance with Josiane, a nice worker.

The Snows of Kilimanjaro

A union pensioner and his wife are robbed, but find that merely getting the assailants brought to justice is not enough for their consciences.

Army of Crime

This gripping historical drama recounts the story of Armenian-born Missak Manouchian, a woodworker and political activist who led an immigrant laborer division of the Parisian Resistance on 30 operations against the Nazis in 1943. The Nazis branded the group an Army of Crime, an anti-immigrant propaganda stunt that backfired as the team's members became martyrs for the Resistance.

Mali Twist

Mali, 1960. The youth of Bamako dance the twist to rock and roll music newly imported from the West and dream of political renewal. Samba, a young socialist, falls for spirited Lara during one of his missions to the bush. To escape her forced marriage, she secretly flees with him to the city. But Lara’s husband won’t let them be and the Revolution soon brings painful disillusions as they dream of a future together.