With the Blood of Others

Delving back into the adventure of the Medvedkine groups is certainly a matter of cinema, but above all, a matter of struggle. It's about remembering that cinema is a mechanism for emancipation. Bruno Muel (who died recently), one of the founders of the groups, was one of these so-called "militant" filmmakers. For him, making films was on the same level as protesting, shouting, writing and loving. This is what is at work in one of the last films of the Medvedkine adventure. It gives the Peugeot workers in the factory town of Sochaux the chance to tell stories that form another collective story of suffering and struggle. Here, the assembly line's steamroller forms an autonomous character. It works on our battered bodies and hopes. But make no mistake: With the Blood of Others is a deeply militant film. It stands out for the strength of its narrative, its formal power and the way it films faces and reproduces the distracting noises of assembly line work. A sound creation in itself.

Benoît Hické
Programmer and professor