In the name of the earth: Guillaume Canet, great little peasant (critique)

Inspired by the story of his own father, Édouard Bergeon creates a family saga about the agricultural world. Moving.

Updated February 18, 2024: While the farmers’ revolt makes the news, France 2 is rebroadcasting this Sunday In the name of the earth. This family saga, inspired by the director’s own story Edouard Bergeonson of a farmer, had influenced the writing of First when it was released in the cinema.

Article from September 24, 2019: If we no longer count the number of comedies, superhero films or portraits of dysfunctional families that occupy theaters, the place occupied by the peasant world on the big screen remains reduced to nothing. But be careful not to give in to the ease of wanting to compare the rare films in question at all costs. Thus, In the Name of the Earth really has nothing in common with the recent Little Peasant than the place of its action: a farm.

For the rest, where Charuel was eyeing the thriller side against a backdrop of the devastating effects of mad cow disease, Édouard Bergeon deploys, for his part, a real family saga inspired by the tragedy experienced by his own father, who took over in 1979 the his grandfather’s farm and was bearing the brunt of the shift in agriculture into a new era. The one where debts strangle small farmers and where banks are quicker to finance unrealizable pharaonic projects than to grant a tiny credit.

In the name of the earth describes the inevitable end of a world. But he does it at a human level, refusing to pile up the great theories to truly tell from the inside the suicidal impulses, the jealousy between peasants, the couples who waver… Modest in his staging, Bergeon makes the more worthy of homage to his father, never sacrificing sentimentality. He is accompanied by a moving Guillaume Canet, surrounded by the no less magnificent Veerle Baetens, Anthony Bajon, Rufus… The truth that emanates from this collective haunts you long after leaving the room.

In the name of the earth, this Sunday at 9:10 p.m. on France 2