Synopsis
Fight Youth is the sum of the videos sent for the casting of the main role of Thierry de Peretti’s last feature film, A Violent Life, as well as the ones filmed by the casting director. In front of the camera, in close-up, each actor reveals himself. Very quickly, questions about the dream of filmmaking give way to a speech on Corsican identity. Young Corsican men talk about their relationship with their island, its past and its present. Through their words, a portrait of a whole generation emerges, between the temptations of nationalism and dreams of a new beginning, elsewhere.
A word from Tënk
Fight Youth… there is, in this brutal juxtaposition (there is no hyphen or link) of the two words, something disconcerting. However, the relevance of the title is revealed during the course of the film. And the succession of around twenty accounts, alone or with others, and where only one woman appears (who remains silent), portrays, beyond their individual lives, a landscape, a system and a paradox. A landscape of isolated rural youth torn between nationalism that can lead to violent action, delinquency, attachment to tradition and merely preserving Corsican culture. A system of repetition of the same, where the impression of relegation as well as the violent environment (decimated families and the settling of scores are plentiful) cause people to slide from mere exclusion to extremism. And a paradox of belonging, since Corsica is both the foundation of these youths’ identity and a prison – a country to sacrifice oneself for, and perhaps stop oneself from growing just to preserve one's idea of it.
Caroline Châtelet
Journalist and critic
