In 2012, Marion Gervais filmed Anaïs, a young 24-year-old farmer, full of passion and determination. In this first 46-minute documentary, Anaïs is going to war, released in 2014, the director followed the young woman in her fight to settle in Brittany, against all odds, between a fussy administration and a misogynistic agricultural environment. Ten years later, the director returns to give us news of this young woman passionate about her job, the cultivation of aromatic plants, who this time “go away to love”. These two highlights are brought together in Anaïs, 2 chapters, to be seen in theaters on September 11, 2024.
When the film opens, Anaïs is crouching in her fields, furiously pulling out weeds and cursing the administration. “Weed”as she would later say, it “relax”. The young woman lives in a caravan, without water or electricity. She dreams of launching her own production of aromatic plants. And for that, she will have to deal with administrative constraints and sexist remarks from the agricultural world (“a pretty girl has no place in the fields”) and the Breton climate. “So, what a great idea to want to make herbal teas in Brittany…”the young woman jokes.
Anaïs needs a water reserve and funding to invest in a dryer for her plants, but she runs into bureaucracy. Full of doubts but never completely discouraged, the young woman patiently listens (even if she doesn’t think any less) to the advice of others. Then she finds a small house and a piece of land where she can grow her plants. The adventure can begin.
“What scares me, is not to get there, says the young woman, always in actionbecause if I don’t succeed, I don’t know what I’ll do with my life.” Anaïs works 12 hours a day, and hardly earns any money from her work. But she doesn’t give up:“I prefer to work 60 hours a week in my field than 35 hours in the factory”she says with a smile.
She plows, sows, harvests, all alone, and by hand. And she hangs on, the words of some sometimes bringing her comfort, notably those of the starred chef Roellinger based in Cancale, known for his herbaceous cuisine. “If your plants are beautiful, it is perhaps because you have taken special care of them.” he told him.
With her slender dancer’s body and her peasant’s hands, Anaïs works tirelessly on her land, as if in a choreography, carried by a mixture of strength and grace.
When the first chapter closes, there is still work to be done but nothing seems to be able to stop the young woman, who over the weeks and meetings has found a form of confidence. “I’m not at all sure it’s going to work, but I’m sure I’ll see it through.”she assures.
Ten years later, chapter 2, we find Anaïs, same passion, same flowery language, a touch of gravity in addition in the look, she is always close to the ground, pulling grass with one hand while the other holds the phone. On the other end of the line, the services of the prefecture. She has found a new reason to rant against the administration: she must obtain a visa for her husband Seydou, originally from Senegal, with whom she ardently desires to share her little paradise of fragrant plants, which she “treat like princesses”.
This second chapter is exclusively devoted to love. We will have very few details on the evolution of the exploitation and sale of Anaïs’ herbal teas, if not by what is shown in the image, and everything indicates that the project has prospered well.
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On the question of love, however, life is not a long, quiet river. Once the administrative hassles are sorted out and Seydou is settled with Anaïs, things do not go smoothly. If Seydou does his share of the work in the fields and at home, he has trouble adapting, and tension mounts between Anaïs and her husband.
But like in chapter 1, Anaïs is not ready to let go. Little by little Seydou acclimatizes and the couple finds its marks. “Everyday life is the same, but with two people, and that changes everything”Anaïs says, while a new shoot grows in her belly.
Constructed in two parts, as the title indicates, the film above all paints the portrait of a woman who, as she herself says, “doesn’t do anything like other people.” A determined, sensitive, uncompromising woman, capable of transforming her anger into energy to make her dreams come true.
In a sober and modest staging, the camera remains attached to its character, the film punctuated by shots that return at regular intervals, as if to mark the passing of time: Anaïs’s footsteps in the grass, or this fixed shot of the young farmer, from behind, her gaze turned towards the horizon, which gradually widens.
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Witness to a beautiful slice of life, this film is crossed by all sorts of questions about society, from work to femininity, including love, immigration and tolerance.
Anaïs, 2 chapters is also penetrated by more intimate questions, specific to the extraordinary personality of Anaïs, who shares with us both her passion and her convictions, her doubts and her extraordinary strength of life, and also that of Seydou, her lover with his chaotic journey, and his silences which speak volumes.
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Gender : Documentary
Director: Marion Gervais
Country : France
Duration : 1h 44min
Exit : September 11, 2024
Distributer : The Twenty-Fifth Hour Distribution
Synopsis : Anaïs, 24, settles down as a farmer in Brittany. Nothing stops her. Neither the administration, nor the misogynistic teachers, nor the broken-down tractor, nor the vagaries of the weather… 10 years later, Anaïs is now married to a young Senegalese man, Seydou. With the harsh law of borders complicating everything, they will have to roll up their sleeves… Together.