Nadia et les hippopotames

The 2018-2020 France oddly looks like the country of the mid-nineties.Et plus ça change......

This film is fatally dated ;paralysed by the transportation strikes, there are traffic jams here there and everywhere.With her child in her arms,Nadia tries to find his father she saw among the strikers in the news on TV .

The news is not good in a country which rebels against the Alain Juppé's plan and its retirements reform (and it is still going on today with another secretary).Nadia joins a railroad men group ;first she calls them "privileged person" (who don't stand a chance to be on the dole) , but the night is still young ,and ,little by little, she realizes she's got a lot in common with them.

Because it all happens in one night,which makes sometimes the movie hard to watch ;this is a plea for a square deal for the exploited , a put down of a government favorably (and outrageously) favored to the wealthy -and the country has never been so rich- , and of the elections trap ;when the movie ends,people are still marching on the street,with little victories....and big defeats .

Ariane Ascaride and Olivier Gourmet,two highly talented committed actors in real life ,give the movie substance in this so-called cinema verite .But what's lacking is a real director ,somebody like Ascaride 's companion,Robert Guédiguian, or the Dardennes Bros ,or Ken Loach .The free-form which gives the improvising actors more than their due,may put off some viewers . But the girls singing Halliday's "retiens la nuit" ,or the child (a woman's work is never done) Nadia carries all through the night are warmful moments in a not very accessible work.

The hippos are the railroadmen's nickname.