Submitted by TheUsher in TheAnarchistCinema (edited )
“If I can’t dance, it’s not my revolution!”
This film is really impressive in how it presents its politics. Often films, and media as a whole, get called anarchist only because they self-describe as such. Instead, this film presents the Joy found in anarchy, and is in that way an anarchist film. The children who desire nothing more than freedom from their repressive situations find joy wherever they can, such as the hidden chocolate, the shared cigarettes, or the warmth and companionship that Bruel and Tabard nourish despite the homophobic paranoia of the supervisors. Not satisfied with living solely in the brief moments, the children are motivated to strike back against those who wish to steal everything from them, not by following some political program for revolution but with a riotous carnival.
The poetry in this film left this viewer with a renewed sense of love for anarchism. The ugliness that lives everywhere (yes even in our spaces) is real, but with close friends and the thirst for joy beautiful things can still be created.
The non-sectarian nature of their rebellion make this an anarchist movie that can appreciated by those who are too jaded to remember how fun smashy is as well as those who are still learning what freedom can feel like.