Mathieu Denis and Simon Lavoie’s epic drama tells a tale of youthful rebellion in all its radicalism and hopelessness.
The heroes of the film are four young people from the middle class who are putting up a challenge to the system and society. They band together in a commune and prepare the perfect riot while sitting around in their squat, seemingly cut off from the world and existing according to their own utopian rules.
This modern epic about the inevitable and desperate, radical, and vain revolt of youth is made in the form of a postmodern manifesto: at times the screen becomes a banner blazing with revolutionary slogans, and the filmmakers constantly cite the leftist classic of the 1960s, interspersing documentaries of real protests in the narrative. The picture analyzes the vulnerability and ambiguity of revolutionary practices—their tendency to gradually slide into the violence the heroes had at first stood against, making them the inevitable hostages of their own rebellion. The work received the Canada Goose Award for the “Best Canadian Film” at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival.
Those Who Make Revolution Halfway Only Dig Their Own Graves
Directed by Mathieu Denis and Simon Lavoie. Canada, 2016. 183 min.
18+