Saigneurs

Meat cutters, stampers, bleeders… A whole range of trades covering the thirty tasks performed on the production chain employing a thousand workers in the slaughterhouse where the filmmakers managed to film. Exceptionally, they were able to talk with the employees on their shifts, despite the noise and rhythm of work. First comes a wait: apparently purposeless movements, without the “blood of the beasts” – seven minutes of compulsory gymnastics. Once the chain starts up, the “dirty work”, the expert speed of evisceration and butchering are, of course, striking. But the framing and balance between image and words leave no room for sensationalism. No question either of focusing on the moment of slaughter per se. The interviews reveal a hierarchical system based on chronic insecurity, compounded by the risk of accident. Little by little, in addition to the animals’ obvious suffering an equally palpable, physical human suffering takes shape – to the point that pain ends up defining the work: “My shoulders are cracking… That may be what work is about, who knows? I’m not broken yet, so I stay on…”, blurts out one worker. Avoiding overstatement, the film finds in this special kind of factory, a hyperbolic example of the conditions of today’s production-line work – in other words, the optimisation of available manpower whatever the cost, even that of “man-bashing”. (Charlotte Garson)