Might is Right
(Stefan Jonsson)
”The riots in the French banlieues in 2005 were nothing”, said the the Belgian director Patric Jean after a screening of the film La raison du plus fort (Might is right) in London last autumn. The big conflict is still to come. "I’m sure there will be blood on the streets of France. Next month? Next year? I don’t know. I only know that it will happen. That is what happens when people have nothing to lose. Nothing. Last time they were very kind; they burned some cars, some buses. Next time they will kill people."
The film is a report from the gloomy and harsh side of Europe. It tells the story of how the European model is on its way to collapse and how discrimination and exclusion leave the inhabitants in the suburbs with no way out. In documentary ruthless images, as marked by mourning as anger, we see a textile factory close down, we see a prison where the prisoners are controlled by meaningless monotonous labour and psychodrugs, we see a judicial systems hostility towards young immigrants from Northern Africa and finally a suburb outside Marseille, Cité Felix Pyat, completely abandoned when it comes to infrastructures and social public functions.
The screening is introduced by the Swedish scholar, writer and critic Stefan Jonsson.
La raison du plus fort / Might is right, 85 min, English subtitles. Arranged in cooperation with the journal Glänta