Film reveals Gilets Jaunes protesters’ untold stories

Far away from the Saturday violence in Paris and other big cities, the film gives individual gilets jaunes the chance to explain why they are there.

J’veux du Soleil was filmed over six days in December by far-left La France Insoumise MP, François Ruffin and documentary maker, Gilles Perret.

They are old friends and decided on the spur of the moment to visit rond-points across six departments from north to south and see if they could make a film out of it.

Having decided to make the documentary, the pair filmed and edited hundreds of hours of footage inside four months. Preview showings have played to packed audiences, with 2,000 watching it in Marseille.

The personalities they met are the stars of the film.

Among them are Carine, who has a disabled child and plays bingo to win supermarket coupons to pay for her shopping; Marie, who works in Montpellier, but her money goes on bills and even then her water gets cut off frequently, so she cannot afford Christmas presents for her children; Natasha who is disabled and reveals she looks for food in dustbins; David, who unloads trucks for a supermarket but has never been given a permanent job, so lives with a series of short-term low-paid contracts.

The characters are eloquent and there is a lot of humour as well as anger but above all, Mr Perret said, these people wanted to talk: “One of the greatest surprises we had was the extent to which they opened their hearts to us.

“These are people who have never had a voice before and have always been ashamed of their poverty.

“But now they have met other people at the roundabouts like them and are willing to go public and start to fight for their rights. This is a special moment in the history of France.”

He said left wing politicians have let them down and many have never been interested in politics until now.

He is aware some may be attracted to Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National party, having decided it is the only viable alternative to president Macron, who many regard as a common enemy, but he thinks few are racist.

He says it is impossible to know what will happen next, but that life has changed irrevocably for the people who gather on the roundabouts across France.

“I think a lot of people have looked at this movement with a great deal of misunderstanding, suspicion and hostility.

“There are racists and hooligans, of course, but they are a minority and I hope anyone who sees the film will understand the gilets jaunes better and want to go and talk to them and find out what they have to say.”