This is a great "realist" movie. It's based upon a true story and wonderfully highlights the hopes, despair, fear and fraternity of workers during a strike in a small factory, as well as the lights and shadows of a political negotiation.
A textile factory is suddenly closed, when the boss vanishes while it appears that the management has been a total failure. Close-out : 153 workers are likely to be thrown away. They just refuse. The factory contains various stocks of dangerous stuff, among which 54 tons of a highly-explosive material. The workers warn that if they are not helped anyhow, by any official mean, they will destroy the factory - and the whole city. A senior syndicalist joins them, to help them organize the strike and run the negotiation. Based on a true story (The Cellatex factory case in Givet, France, in the late 90's), this movie is built on a very realistic "parti-pris" : short scenes, almost no music, close-up, everyday language... But every scene, every line would provide us with a piece of information about who are these men and women, why they fight, what they hope and fear... The main character, the syndicalist (Bernard-Pierre Donadieu) is just great, wonderfully credible in the position of a men torn between his understanding of the desperate workers and his awareness of the necessity of compromising. All in all, a great TV movie. Bravo !
