Filmed at their place of work in the repetition of their daily gestures, workers in industrial slaughterhouses speak of their suffering. To the early wear out of their bodies due to almost unbearable working paces, are added the nightmares, stress, fear of accidents, the anxiety of a closed-in horizon. Luckily, here we are between Normandy and Brittany, and the seaside is there for moments of relaxation and for their eagerly awaited retirement. 

The picture is gripping: under the neon lighting of a factory that, day and night, turns living animals into portions of meat, the animals’ flesh brutally meets that of humans. Although widely mechanised, the work of slaughtering and butchering is still dangerous, noisy, traumatic and mind-numbing. In a voice off we hear the testimonies of workers (men and women) who tell us what that does to the flesh and soul to spend their lives there, side by side with the animals they kill, that they cut up with axes or knives and then pack to sell – on special offer – in supermarkets. Except for the trade unionists who took the risk to show their faces, the anonymous testimonies form a chorus of all these shattered lives. Posing outside their factory, certain workers mime in a sort of choreography those gestures they perform thousands of times a day and that they refuse to reduce their life to.

Source : Eva Segal