This documentary uses a tight, personal style to deliver a long-form argument about the nature of state violence and the issue of legitimacy. Interviews with protesters, bystanders, professionals, scholars, and policemen make up the majority of this film’s content. These slow conversations are punctuated by raw footage, often captured on cell phones. The speakers set up a political or philosophical idea, then the footage allows the viewer to apply their own or the stated philosophy to a real-life scenario. Then further discussion, usually in duos, occurs usually centered around lived experience rather than philosophical ideals. This pattern repeats until the end of the film.
The film’s original title in French, Un pays qui se tient sage, is a play on the words spoken by one French National Police officer during the arrest of 153 high-school student protesters from Mantes-la-Jolie in 2018. The policeman filming proudly says "Voilà une classe qui se tient sage", roughly translated as “Well, isn’t this a well-behaved class!” In the cell phone footage, we can see the 153 students held in a backyard at gunpoint, forced to kneel in rows with their hands raised behind their heads. It’s later disclosed these teenagers were forced to hold this position for upwards of 5 hours.
Director David Dufresne offers no footage calmer than this. The rest of the footage contains beatings, blood, and mutilation. Raw, violent, and shocking, these images ask the question “What made this use of force legitimate?” Of the varied French citizens interviewed, we hear many answers for each example. It also asks the viewer, “Was this legitimate violence?" To those who seek it, this documentary acts as an invitation into a philosophical discussion that has been with humanity for at least as long as writing: Whose violence is legitimate, and what makes it so?
While I personally was entranced by this documentary and the philosophical nature of the discussion, I can understand why this wouldn’t be a documentary for every public library shelf. While the raw, shocking footage and philosophical discussion make this documentary a fantastic study of police brutality, it also makes it a hard film to watch.
It should be clearly stated that there is extreme violence and gore in this documentary when making recommendations. The discussion would also be terribly dry for those uninterested. That being said, this superior documentary belongs in college libraries and in political or philosophy library collections. Those planning events about police brutality should consider circulating or showing this documentary as a part of library programming. The Monopoly of Violence is highly recommended. Editor’s Choice.
Discover more titles for your film collection in our list of political movies.