Filmmaker Thierry de Peretti has made his native island of Corsica (a French region that has long sought sovereignty) the subject of his directorial career. To celebrate the presentation of his newest film, À Son Image, at this year’s edition of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema — Film at Lincoln Center’s annual showcase of French cinema — we’re proud to present his interview-based featurette Lutte jeunesse.

Ahead of his sophomore film, Une vie violente, Peretti and his casting director, Julie Allione, staged a “wild casting call” in which they plastered posters all over Corsica to gather actors for the project. Lutte jeunesse collects these interviews, transforming a simple pre-production process into a sociological inquiry on the relationship between the island’s youth and nationalism.

“I really like groups, gangs. It’s very cinematic. A group is, in a snapshot, a condensation, a piece of society.” THIERRY DE PERETTI

 

Peretti regularly works with non-professional actors and Lutte jeunesse provides viewers with a window into his collaborative and research intensive approach to filmmaking. In an interview with Débordements, he noted that, “the idea is that all the people who come to the casting are in the film, even in smaller roles.” Even if a prospective actor is not cast in the film, Peretti’s growing body of work attests to the fact that their concerns and ideas about the state of Corsican culture and politics remain onscreen. Through its combination of interviews and its focus on how young Corsican men feel about their island, Lutte jeunesse compresses Peretti’s interests into a 55-minute mosaic that reflects the politics of his fellow Corsicans and his own people-driven approach to filmmaking.

Thierry de Peretti was born in Ajaccio, Corsica, in 1970. His films often concern the intricate politics of his native island. Les Apaches, his first film, premiered in Cannes Director’s Fortnight in 2013, followed by the crime drama Une vie violente (2017) and police procedural Undercover (2021). His newest film, À son image, is an adaptation of Jérôme Ferrari’s award-winning novel of the same name. The film traces the history of political radicalism in ‘90s Corsica through the eyes of a photographer who gets romantically involved with a member of the militant National Liberation Front of Corsica.

Text written by Nicolas Pedrero-Setzer.