Rouge

"At first, I had imagined a similar story with garbage collectors, an environment that is never dealt with in movies. But the professional environment of waste management is now very closely monitored and controlled, there are no more cases of pollution, so it's no longer topical. While researching these waste issues, I came across the story of the Gardanne plant that discharges its toxic waste into the Mediterranean, red sludge. For several years now, the government and the prefecture have been asking them to stop polluting the sea. But this factory also means 500 jobs, which is quite a lot in a place like Gardanne already marked by unemployment. When I saw the photos of this factory and its red sludge, I found it very striking in cinematic terms. I transposed my story to this type of factory that also exists elsewhere in the world. I then did a lot of research on other stories of polluting factories, other destinies of whistleblowers. Rouge is not a documentary, it's a fiction, freely inspired by various real facts. "Farid Bentoumi

The film Rouge Farid Bentoumi is in the official Cannes 2020 selection and was presented at the Deauville American Film Festival. It is Farid Bentoumi's second feature film after Good Luck Algeria (2015) which he had already shot with actor Sami Bouajila. As in his first film, Farid Bentoumi benefits from an excellent casting with notably in the main roles Zita Hanrot, Sami Bouajila, Céline Sallette, Olivier Gourmet.

A real pamphlet against industrialization at all costs and the many worries that chemical plants can raise, he shows that they do not hesitate not only to risk the lives of their employees but also to dump their chemicals without respecting the environment or the legal clauses to be respected. Whether it be doctored medical records or all sorts of misappropriations, the film Red sadly reflects through this fiction a not so distant reality.

Farid Bentoumi's highly inspired staging allows us to follow the journey of Nour Hamadi (Zita Hanrot) who has just been hired in the chemical factory where his father Slimane Hamadi (Sami Bouajila) works and where his father is also a shop steward and fervent protector of his company. While a journalist, Emma (Celine Sallette), is investigating the factory, Nour will not only discover numerous embezzlements in the factory, but will also become a real whistle-blower, putting his life in danger to bring back evidence, but also to antagonize his father and other people who want to hide the truth.

Rouge reminds us of those great American films of the 70s and 80s in which journalists brought to light compromising files by risking their lives (The President's Men (1976)...). Perfectly documented, this film appears to be a mix between a documentary approach and fiction in which everything seems credible. Benefiting from a gripping scenario and the presence of excellent actors, Rouge was one of the good surprises of the Deauville American Film Festival and we can't advise you too much to watch our video of the exciting press conference that we were able to cover and to discover here.

Rouge
Directed by Farid Bentoumi
Produced by Frédéric Jouve
Written by Farid Bentoumi and Samuel Doux
Starring Zita Hanrot, Sami Bouajila, Céline Sallette, Olivier Gourmet, Henry-Noël Tabary, Alka Balbir
Music by Pierre Desprats
Cinematography : Georges Lechaptois
Edited by Damien Keyeux
Production companies : Les Films Velvet, Les Films du Fleuve
Distributed by Ad Vitam (France)
Release date : August, 11 2021 (France)
Running time: 86 minutes

Seen on September 11, 2020 at the Centre International de Deauville

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