Get to work! : a powerful social film [critique]

By bringing a liberal media columnist into contact with the reality of precarious work, François Ruffin and Gilles Perret create an ode to invisible heroes.

Third film, after I want the sun And Stand up women! co-directed by François Ruffin and Gilles Perret (who also released the superb The Bertrand Farm), this comedy-documentary starts from a simple principle, even a little raunchy, which has repercussions on its somewhat laborious beginning. Highly publicized MP-filmmaker, François Ruffin found himself in 2023 on the set of the show The Big Mouths facing the lawyer and columnist Sarah Saldmann who made insulting remarks towards precarious workers and workers living on minimum wage; he then suggested to the ultra-liberal lawyer to try the experience of living on 1,300 euros a month.

The film was born from there and the camera follows Sarah Saldmann for several days in the field and under the amused eye of Ruffin in difficult professions such as parcel delivery girl, carer, fish cutter… The young woman discovers the concrete difficulties of peripheral France and seems affected, but will she change her opinion? Beyond this media-political device, the filmmakers above all give voice to numerous people in social distress who confide their upsetting existential journeys.

If it knocks open doors a little by showing how contemptuous editorialists and other television stars are disconnected from reality, the film nevertheless manages to move away from mere satire to become, through precision and listening quality, a powerful ode to invisible heroes.

By Gilles Perret and François Ruffin. Duration 1h24. Released November 6, 2024.