After “In the Name of the Earth”, the filmmaker takes a new look at the agricultural world through the production of palm oil in Thailand.
Published
Reading time: 4 min
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Director Édouard Bergeon, son of a farmer and former journalist at France Télévisions, continues to cast his sensitive and keen eye on the world of farmers. His first movie, In the name of the earth, with Guillaume Canet, told the poignant story of his father, a debt-ridden farmer forced to commit suicide.
With The Green Promise in theaters on March 27, today it attacks palm oil operators responsible for deforestation and continues a committed cinema that wants to raise awareness before it is too late.
Human disaster and ecological aberration
While he is staying in Indonesia to finish his thesis on the Dayak tribe, a young anthropology student, Martin (played by Félix Moati), witnesses a murder. He further discovers that the last indigenous people are forced into exile under threat, forced to abandon their land so that the government can plant palm trees there.
Having become an embarrassing witness, the young student is sentenced to death in Indonesia. His mother (Alexandra Lamy) then launches into a fight against industrialists, lobbies and the political world to save his life.
Met in Paris, director Édouard Bergeon spoke about this human disaster and this ecological aberration in Indonesia, the leading palm oil producing country. “When I was a senior reporter, I saw the ravages of deforestation caused by palm oil production,” he explains. “It is produced in tropical countries where there are primary forests with extraordinary biodiversity. It is a sink of biodiversity that is disappearing. First the forest is destroyed to sell the precious wood, then oceans of palm trees are planted, but palm trees are not trees, they are plants in the same way as soya and corn.”
A “not so green” promise
Beyond deforestation, production methods are also alarming. “There is a lot of chemistry, fertilizers to weed and a lot of carbon energy to harvest, refine, transport, so the cost of this green energy is deplorable and negative, so it’s all a big joke,” explains Édouard Bergeon. Present in Nutella, palm oil is plaguing every country in the world, because it is omnipresent and its production creates jobs in Asia as well as in Europe.
According to Édouard Bergeon, “Palm oil is an incredible oil for manufacturers. It is productive, inexpensive and allows you to preserve. There are some in cosmetics, laundry detergents, in many forms of energy, so-called biofuels. Flying planes with green fuel? Make green electricity? But is it really that green? The green promise is perhaps not so green and promises are only binding on those who keep them.”
Closer to reality
Director Édouard Bergeon wanted to shoot The Green Promise as close as possible to the nature concerned. He chose Thailand to install his cameras, because it is also a palm oil producing country: “I absolutely wanted to shoot in real settings: palm groves, courthouse, prison and the Thais welcomed us with open arms. They’re used to having film crews over, so we did what we wanted. For me, Bali is over, I won’t go on vacation there anymore, but we’re very good in France too.” For added credibility, actress Alexandra Lamy shot the film without makeup and that’s not necessarily easy in 55 degree weather!
Concerned about a cinema as close as possible to reality, the director also wanted to embody ecological activism in the guise of a woman. Nila, played by actress Julie Chen, is the young whistleblower, intrepid and courageous. The character through whom everything happens, a key role for the director. “It is often young women who defend their people and their territory. Whistleblowers are often whistleblowers today. Women are more sensitive to the cause of agriculture, to the defense of environment. But it is very dangerous. There is a very, very strong figure: every two days, in the world, there is an activist or defender of ecology who disappears.”
“Children and Trees”
With a lot of tension, but also sensitivity, The Green Promise highlights the ecological, political and economic issues linked to deforestation. To raise public awareness of the importance of all varieties of forests and trees for our ecosystem, part of the profits will be donated to the Children and Trees association, sponsored by Édouard Bergeon, which invites children to replant trees. trees among farmers.
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The sheet
Gender : Drama
Director: Édouard Bergeon
Actors: Alexandra Lamy, Felix Moati, Sofian Khammes
Country : France
Duration : 2:04
Exit : March 27 2024
Distributer : Diaphana
Synopsis: To try to save her son Martin, unjustly sentenced to death in Indonesia, Carole launches into an unequal fight against the palm oil operators responsible for deforestation and against the powerful industrial lobbies.