From Alès, Alexandra Lamy and Edouard Bergeon share their “green promise”

Alexandra Lamy et Edouard Bergeon : “Le film raconte un phénomène mondial qui nous dépasse mais il montre que l'on peut faire des choses bien chez nous. ” Midi Libre – Paul Barraud

This Sunday, February 11, the Alesian actress and the filmmaker presented a preview of the film "The Green Promise", narrating the fight of a mother to save her son unjustly condemned to died in Indonesia for trying to denounce the abuses of palm oil cultivation. Cross-interview. 

Édouard Bergeon, "The green promise" curiously echoes "In the name of the earth", your previous film which narrates the distress of the French agricultural world. There, we take on an international dimension with Indonesia. Why propose a story centered on the catastrophic consequences of intensive palm oil cultivation ? 

Édouard Bergeon:We are actually talking about a French story! We start from a demonstration by farmers who had been encouraged to grow rapeseed to make green fuel. Like my own father had been at the time. And they demonstrate in front of a Total refinery which imports palm oil to produce it. We are talking about French land and more generally about the whole land. The one we live on. I also wanted to talk about deforestation. The tree, whether it is at the end of the world or near us, it creates air. Although it may be far from the world, it concerns us. It concerns us to the point that the farmers who blocked the roads to our country a fortnight ago said: "let's not matter what we can do with us". The film tells the story of a global phenomenon that is beyond our control, but it shows that we can do good things at home. 

Ecological and political catastrophe

Filmed in 2023 between Les Sables d’Olonne and Thailand, The Green Promise tells the story of the fight of a mother, Carole, to save her son unjustly condemned to death in Indonesia after witnessing the massacre of a village in a primary forest by a multinational producing palm oil. In her fight, Carole will find herself confronted with the political, diplomatic and economic gears that fuel the machine. A story intended, according to its director Édouard Bergeon, to raise awareness of the dramatic environmental consequences of our consumption patterns. The film will be released on all big screens in France on March 27.

Alexandra Lamy, here you sign your first collaboration with Edouard Bergeon. How did you join the project ? 

Alexandra Lamy: We both come, in a certain way, from the rural world. I loved In the name of the earth and I was very happy when Édouard thought of me for his new film. I read the script, and when you see what it says. This woman's fight… I said yes straight away. 

You play Carole, mother of Martin (played by Félix Moati, Editor's note), a young man unjustly sentenced to death in Indonesia after witnessing a massacre sponsored by a multinational palm oil producer to steal land from an indigenous people. How do you prepare for the role of a tired mother but ready to do anything to win a fight that seems lost in advance ? 

A. L.: I worked a lot upstream. In The Green Promise, moral fatigue physically exhausts this woman, who doesn't even think about putting on makeup. I got "tired" in truth. I put myself in a state where I think about his emotions all the time. And by doing that, it gets tiring. 

É. B. : She didn't want to wear makeup for the shoot. Going into this naturalistic and raw side is not nothing for an actress. 

You are not afraid, faced with the problem, that spectators will feel powerless in the face of this globalized system ? 

A. L.:I think that, somewhere, we are all actors in the situation. At some point, to stop the cultivation of palm oil, we must no longer consume it. It’s like what’s happening today with our farmers: if today we continue to buy local, it’s I am sure that the world will be better off than consuming industrial or imported products. If we all did that already, there are lots of things that would change. That would already be a huge step. But what I also like in this film is the hope of youth. The character of Felix is ​​ready to sacrifice himself. This is youth, they have taken hold of ecology, they are ready to fight for it. 

É.B : It can be basic but it can also start with cooking, choosing what to eat. we want to eat… I am also the sponsor of an association, Children and Trees, which work, with children,  to replant trees and hedges with farmers. Those who want to can already help them.  

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