Why neither channels nor masters is a film to see (critic)
Tonight on television, it is one of the great forgotten of the César 2025 which will be broadcast on Canal Plus, one of the French shocks of the Ciné 2024 year.
Widely applauded when it was released in theaters, last year, Neither chains nor masters had shone by his absence during the César 2025 ceremony last February. Simon Moutaïrouscreenwriter and director, could certainly have claimed a place (at least among the first films) for his powerful chronicle of resistance to slavery in 18th century France, which will be broadcast this evening on Canal Plus.
Located in 1759 in the heart of the Isle de France (the current Mauritius), the first feature film of Simon Moutaïrou (Co-Scenarist of Black box,, Goliath..) Follows the fate of Massamba and Mati, a father and his daughter, slaves in a French plantation of sugar cane. When Mati fled, a cruel slave hunter is responsible for finding her and Massamba escapes in turn.
By approaching the subject, very little treated in the cinema, of the abominable slave system practiced for several centuries by France, the film shows a rare ambition, supported by immersive sets and a frontal violence which draw the contours of an imposing pamphlet. Even if the constant use of the codes of survival And the desire to load this tragic story with a magical mysticism and a fantastic aesthetic strangely reduces the scope of the characters and limit realism, this great historical testimony is nonetheless precious.
