The Liberated Broom

After giving a voice to men in the context of abortion (La place de l’homme), director Coline Grando once again takes a sidestep, this time turning her camera toward those who come after us, making our living spaces pleasant and clean. In a word: livable.Her approach is original: she organizes discussion groups where workers from yesterday and today meet. Times have changed, so have the work rhythms. And yet, voices circulate, stories travel. Experiences echo one another. The cooperative model of the past meets today’s system of outsourcing and competitive bidding. A capitalist society where the issue of care extends far beyond cleaning, as expressed by a former nursing assistant who chose to become a cleaner rather than work under conditions that forced her to neglect her patients: “Here, if you don't wash a table one day, it's just a table, not a human being.” You come away from the film with the urge to fight back and take collective action, to kick up the dust — and maybe even become your own boss.

Éva Tourrent
Filmmaker and Tënk France's Artistic Director