Inevitably, given the events of the past couple of years, the resurgence of populism is an underlying theme at this year’s festival, but in French director Lucas Belvaux’s This Is Our Land politics is not just a theme: it’s front and centre.
The French title, Chez nous, doesn’t mean a nice little house to retire to when you’re done roamin’: it’s the slogan of Marine Le Pen’s French far-right party Front National, "On est chez nous" – we’re at home here; this is our land and don’t you think you (Muslims, Eurocrats, anti-gun campaigners, boho lefties, whoever you hate) are going to take it away from us. Emile Dequenne is marvellous as the dedicated French nurse who is persuaded to become a local candidate because she believes the Party is acting for the underdog.
The fact that Le Pen was not a winner in last May’s French election doesn’t make the film any less powerful or any less of a cliffhanger. This is politics at a personal level: the danger, says Belvaux, is when the politics of hate comes to be an accepted part of daily life, and his film is a primer to how that happens.
Screening Tuesday: 18:15, Ciné Lumiere; and tomorrow, 12:OO, Vue West End 7
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