After “In the Name of the Earth”, director Edouard Bergeon returns with “La Promesse verte” carried by Félix Moati and Alexandra Lamy. Why should we see this ecologically committed adventure film?
What is it about ?
To try to save her son Martin, unjustly sentenced to death in Indonesia, Carole launches into an unequal fight against the palm oil operators responsible for deforestation and against the powerful industrial lobbies.
After the successful drama Au Nom de la Terre, with Guillaume Canet (nearly 2 million admissions), director and screenwriter Edouard Bergeon returns with an even more ambitious film. For this 2nd fiction feature film, the director goes up a notch, taking on a much broader story, reminiscent of big-budget American productions, in terms of twists and turns, settings, and also its original soundtrack.
From adventure film to ecological thriller
The Green Promise takes the form of an adventure film at the beginning, before establishing itself more as a committed thriller in a second phase. This is a dense feature film in terms of narration, which could almost have lent itself to a series.
In the press kit, Edouard Bergeon places his film, in comparison to In the Name of the Earth: “it’s just the scale that changes. The two films are committed and tell a human drama, while conveying a political message“.
A scent of truth
As with his previous film, we feel a great deal of documentation and precision work to achieve the film. So much so that one might think that the film is directly inspired by a true story. If The Green Promise is indeed based on real facts, it is not “strictly speaking a true story“, explains Edouard Bergeon. “The characters in the film did not exist. On the other hand, the issues presented are.”
Everything is true. It is essential that everything is credible.
And added: “I was a journalist then I made documentaries, where I told real stories. I have kept this DNA by making today a cinema of reality, committed. The information that I distill in the film on Indonesia, on the forest, French diplomacy, the green fuel industry, palm oil, geopolitics, etc… Everything is true. It is essential that everything is credible. What the characters in the film are experiencing is truly a situation that everyone could experience, even if I wouldn’t wish it on anyone!“
Edouard Bergeon, a trained journalist, took as his starting point a press article, dating from 2018, concerning the blocking of the Total de la Mède refinery by farmers. “They were protesting against the importation of palm oil from Southeast Asia, intended for the production of biofuels. French farmers had been encouraged by the government, via bonuses, to grow palm to produce biofuel and imports of palm oil would lower the market price of French oil. The anger of these farmers who felt cheated immediately resonated with me.“
The film has both a journalistic and educational approach, which makes the film clear and accessible. It provides access to figures on these subjects linked to the problem of deforestation.
An attractive cast
The Green Promise has the good idea to capitalize on the sympathy and general public capital of an actress like Alexandra Lamy. Alexandra Lamy gives the impression of having invested a lot in this dramatic role, and in which she appears without makeup. Félix Moati is very convincing in this main role.