We rarely go to the cinema to be given a kick in the pants. Yet sometimes it’s needed. Demain is one film that does just that.
The starting point of this documentary-cum-road movie directed by Cyril Dion (a militant ecologist who has just recovered from burn-out) and Mélanie Laurent (an actress-cum-mother in search of meaning) was the announcement in the highly respected science magazine Nature of the “possible end of humanity”.
According to this study, we have 20 years available to us to curb the process that creates greenhouse gases. The tone is set, urgency is paramount. You start this adventure with a lump in your throat as you hear the wonderful story of the preservation of the biosphere. And then, in an extraordinary turnaround, the wind changes and the tone becomes amazingly positive, a hymn to life. You set off on a tour of the world – somewhat chaotic but enjoyable – that introduces us to exhilarating and innovative solutions right around the globe.
Taking in broad subjects like agriculture, consumption, democracy, education and energy, you discover that the solutions are necessarily local, that cities have a fundamental role to play by supporting their united, committed communities, and that the initiatives that make the difference are those dreamed up by the public. And, most importantly, that we are obliged to rethink not only our economic model but our entire way of life because everything is linked.
At times simplistic, frank and thus slightly irritating, this film has the great merit of turning its back on the catastrophe scenarios customarily portrayed by ecology documentaries. It gives us back our confidence in the intelligence, kindness and ingenuity of the human species. And that’s already a great deal.
You come out smarter and above all wanting to get involved. The challenge is right there in front of us and it begins now: “We didn’t start with ‘Let’s save the planet’. Because that was too grand. We started where we are.”
Playing now in Luxembourg at the Utopia and in all the good cinemas.