Uprisings: A Public Service Documentary (review)
Thomas Lacoste recounts the Earth Uprisings movement in a fascinating choral documentary that challenges a multitude of preconceived ideas. A film as committed as it is engaging
It is never easy for cinema to take on a current subject. Because the long time required for its production can quickly give the feeling of arriving too late or too early to have the necessary perspective. But Thomas Lacoste escapes these two traps here. For this documentary, he embarked on a tour of France and developed a 16-voice portrait of the members of the Uprising of the Earth, founded by ex-members of the ZAD of Notre-Dame-des-Landes, dissolved in 2023 by Gérald Darmanin before the Council of State annulled this decision. And from the first testimony, the tone is set. We see an activist going against the archetypal shortcuts into which we often reduce these activists: after working in ministries, she converted to a cheese maker then a cattle breeder defending “the art of butchery”!
His testimony – very strong – symbolizes everything that will follow. This idea of diversity – of generations, of thoughts, of backgrounds – of those who have decided to commit to the environment. Without Lacoste ever giving in to the ease of cinema with a message. Through the wealth of on-camera confidences that he manages to collect from people accustomed to going underground for their safety. And by his way of making cinema by accompanying his story with blocks of images and sound – which he calls sensoriums – mixing archives of the actions of these Uprisings of the Earth, shots of nature or animal breaths. Dream moments dialoguing with the concrete reality of words. After his long-term work (including The Democratic Hypothesis: A Basque History in 2022) on the way in which the separatists of the Basque Country were able to think about ending armed conflict, Lacoste here proves his talent for seizing the present. His Uprisings is a document of public utility.
By Thomas Lacoste. Duration: 1h45. Released February 11, 2026
