A social film capable of restoring morale? This is the challenge cheerfully taken up by Takeover. Gilles Perret brought together Lætitia Dosch, Pierre Deladonchamps, Gregory Montel and Vincent Deniard for a big snub to the gloom with this story of workers in a factory in Haute-Savoie who pass themselves off as financiers in order to buy their company promised to an investment fund. Behind this pitch hides a most pleasing outcome.
“We don’t see much of the world of work in the cinema and the films that talk about it often end very badly,” explains the director to 20 minutes. I didn’t want to convey this pessimistic message because there are also social conflicts that end well. Known for documentaries like I want sun Where Stand up women! (co-directed with François Ruffin), the filmmaker is trying his hand at fiction for the first time and it is a success. “Fiction allows more freedom,” says Gilles Perret. It is voluntarily that Marion Richoux and I wrote a story in the form of a tale. »
A resolutely optimistic film
However, this confrontation between the industrial world and finance has its roots in reality. The screenwriters consulted technical advisers to validate their adventures and their dialogues. “The reality is much worse, sighs the filmmaker, but we didn’t want to load the mule so as not to fall into caricature. A clever scenario puts the public on the side of workers who consider themselves “not more stupid than financiers” and prove the accuracy of this assertion by their analytical finesse combined with a steely determination. The clear and instructive story heightens the suspense around characters that are all the more endearing as they fight to save their livelihood.
“By dint of telling people that everything is rotten in the business world and that you have to accept it because you can’t do anything about it, they are desperate. I did not want to get this message across, insists Gilles Perret. I rather want to give balm to the heart to people who want to raise their heads. And to leave the room with a smile on your face and the assurance that unity can indeed be strength.