Serious and political, ambitious and thoughtful: INDIGNADOS is a Modernist collage that alerts us to the ongoing revolution in Europe. It is a continuous practice of Eisenstein and Godard’s beliefs in the power (instead of magic) of film.

INDIGNADOS is not a film made to hypnotise us for entertainment; instead, it is a visual essay made to wake us up.  The film is named after the Spanish protest movement Indignados, started on the 15th of May 2011; it is itself a stylish part of the ongoing protest. It expresses indignation and anger towards political corruption. It aims to raise a campaign of the movement, and to draw more pubic awareness by treating cinema as the most effective propaganda medium.

“No human being is illegal”,  “Capitalism kills”, “Rise up people”

The film follows an African refugee, Betty, across Europe,where she experiences various protests in France, Greece and Spain. Protest slogans like “No human being is illegal”,  “Capitalism kills”, “Rise up people” and so on are composed into a montage sequence as Betty’s point of view during her journey.  Betty does not understand any of these languages: is she even aware of what these people are participating in? This is the main question Tony Gatlif’s film aims to address.  The significant contrast between Betty’s journey by herself, and the huge crowds of protesters, intrigues us to rethink the value of revolution.  It is almost dangerous to think the idea of revolution has now become a fashion, or a new object of fetishism. This argument is evident in the opening sequence of the film, where thousands of fresh oranges roll down the pavement at the same time. It indeed makes a spectacular scene, but what else? The oranges finally drop into a boat, and will soon sail to an unknown destination, just like the shoes of African refugees are washed up onto an unknown beach in Europe.

During the final scene, the director pushes the idea of revolution to an even more abstract level. Betty gets trapped in a building site after staying there over night. She hits hard on the gates and shouts for help, but no one responds. As the camera zooms out gradually, we realise she is the only one making the noises in a big empty area. All the protesters have disappeared; all the music and shouting have stopped, apart from the noise Betty tries to make to get attention. Betty’s voice eventually becomes a rhythm, but will it get heard or recognised at all?

When survival finally becomes what we live for, cliché in cinema, and even cinema itself will eventually become meaningless.