Blow It to Bits

In the spring of 2017, the auto parts factory GM&S in the town of La Souterraine, France hit the headlines when the employees threatened to blow up the factory. The company was about to close down without offering any solution for its 277 employees. Filmmaker Lech Kowalski decided to film the events as they unfolded over the ensuing months.

With a handheld camera, Kowalski follows the determined workers as they make plans, engage in heated discussions, participate in protests, erect blockades and talk to potential new owners and politicians. President Emmanuel Macron even visits the company and promises to do his best for the employees. Kowalski is able to report on events from the inside, because the workers give him virtually unlimited access—at one point, he even gets thrown out of a building by the police.

The director leaves us in no doubt as to whose side he is on. In Blow It to Bits, he shows the human consequences of an economic system in which the interests of the shareholders are infinitely more important than those of the little guy.