This screening is part of Filmfest Aachen 2025

Direct Action

2024, France, 216 min, Guillaume Cailleau & Ben Russell, French, NRW Premiere
Original version with english subtitles

Direct Action captures resistance in real time, unfolding within the ZAD near Notre-Dame-des-Landes, a long-standing anti-capitalist occupation against airport construction. Rather than dramatizing protest, the film immerses us in daily acts of care and survival: digging trenches, cooking, planting, repairing. Moments of joy, a piano recital, a birthday, a party - remind us that resistance is also lived in community.

Echoing Chantal Akerman, directors Cailleau and Russell focus on duration, silence, and gesture. Direct Action is not just about protest, it performs it. A quiet, persistent refusal. A cinema of presence. A radical act of staying.

Direct Action shows resistance in the now - in the ZAD near Notre-Dame-des-Landes, an anti-capitalist occupation against airport construction. Instead of confrontation, the film stages everyday practices: Digging trenches, cooking, planting, repairing. Moments of joy - a piano piece, a birthday, a party - make it clear that resistance also lives in community.

In the tradition of Chantal Akerman, Cailleau and Russell rely on duration, silence and gesture. Direct Action is not a film about protest - it enacts it. A silent, persistent refusal. A cinema of presence. A radical act of staying.

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