Rural: In the Name of the Earth (review)

With an empathy that never veers into hagiography, Edouard Bergeon paints the portrait of Jérôme Bayle, a media figure in the agricultural world, a free man and therefore feared and respected.

It’s a face and an expression that we discovered in 2024 during an event in the agricultural world and that we find in each of their fights. But basically we know nothing about Jérôme Bayle, a breeder from Haute-Garonne who took over the family farm. And Edouard Bergeon (At name of Earth), himself the son of farmers, therefore wanted to tell the story in depth. He followed him into the heart of the movements he organized, his meetings with politicians but above all in his daily life as a farmer, his relationship with his mother and a divorced woman who came to settle in this corner of France with her children to whom Bayle would pass on his passion.

Driven by an empathy that never veers into hagiography, Rural paints the portrait of a free man and therefore feared and respected by politicians because it is impossible to place under any banner. A freedom that even Emmanuel Macron learns to his cost when in the little game of shaking hands where he excels, we see him disconcerted when Bayle does not let go of the embrace while staring into his eyes. To the point that he suddenly starts to wave at him. This scene symbolizes what Bergeon achieves here. Go beyond an ideological reading to favor the human. And always from a safe distance, including in the poignant moments when Bayle talks about his father’s suicide. It’s a shame that the omnipresent music supports too much what is said or suggested.

By Edouard Bergeon. Duration: 1h30. Released March 4, 2026