His 103 cows? At the slaughterhouse. After the discovery of a case of tuberculosis in his herd, Bernard Dahetze is forced to part with it. Not one will remain, it is the rule imposed by the State. “It’s more than animals, it’s a life”, we hear the farmer say in the documentary cow lovedirected by Édouard Bergeon and broadcast this Sunday, on France 5.
Faced with the immobility of the institutions, it is towards the director of the film with more than two million admissions, In the name of the earth, which Bernard’s wife turned. He then accompanies a parliamentary mission on peasant malaise to propose ways of preventing agricultural suicide “When I received this message, I said to myself that I was going to send a camera because I did not have time to ‘go there’, rewinds the director to 20 minutes. But the administration does not hear it that way, it advises Édouard Bergeon not to take the road towards Ozenx-Montestrucq, a town in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques where the farm is located. “That’s when I wanted to go there myself, they wanted to close the door to me, I came in through the window. »
Time to get organized, he arrives a few days later for a first meeting. Three years of comings and goings with the Dahetze couple will follow. Édouard Bergeon follows the different stages that the couple goes through. “I let myself be carried away, I never thought I would accompany them for so long. It was only last summer that I knew that what I had filmed would become a documentary for France Télévisions. »
“Happy and Free”
The result is spread over a succession of sequences lasting 70 minutes. A way for the director to put the agricultural world back at the center of the issues that concern it. “Farmers forgot to talk about what they were doing for a long time and they got a backlash, we talked for them. And when we speak for people, we don’t get the right messages,” he laments.
Because Édouard Bergeon himself comes from that world, where working the land gives rhythm to daily life. It is moreover the tragedy experienced by his family bereaved by the suicide of his father which inspired him In the name of the earth. Shis mother put down her farming apron two years ago, but the memories of the farm are still with her. “I know them, me, the scoundrels,” he laughs in a snub to those who judge without knowing.
Before being a documentary on an agricultural drama, the director wants his film above all to be an ode to rurality. “Bernard is happy and free, he loves his animals. That’s what I question but many don’t understand it because they don’t come from the rural world, ”insists the director. He evokes a “tacit contract” between the breeders and their cattle, at the end of which the animals feed the men. He criticizes a “trial of intent” that has become too common on animal welfare issues when the heart of the breeder’s job is to take care of his animals.
“It’s important to talk about the rural world”
Coming to Paris for the first time during the 2023 edition of the Agricultural Show, which also closes this Sunday, Bernard and Sylvie Dahetze had the opportunity to challenge Emmanuel Macron before leaving for Béarn. “Sylvie calls me a lot, telling me that if they do this, it’s not for them, it’s for others. Because if the film is also the evidence of an avoided drama, the outcome could have been more dramatic.
Especially since climate change accentuates the dismay of breeders. “It’s a disaster,” laments Édouard Bergeon. Each event weakens them more and more. So just talking about them, showing what they do and what they do well, is important! »
To raise awareness of the difficulties faced by farmers, education remains the best lever, according to Édouard Bergeon. “I will always be benevolent and interested in agricultural issues,” he assures us as he flew to Thailand to shoot his second feature film, The green promise with Alexandra Lamy. The actress embodies the role of a woman trying to save her son by confronting the lobbies that defend the economic and political interests of what are called “biofuels”. Here too, it is through a concrete example that Édouard Bergeon wants to raise awareness. “It’s through people that we can get things across, it’s the little story that tells the big one…”