“Farmers need to be heard”

You have chosen to paint the portrait of a farmer. For what ?

I wanted impressionist cinema telling the story of a profession through the journey of a character. I met this man in Jérôme Bayle, a cow breeder on a small farm in Volvestre (Haute-Garonne). I film his lifestyle, his daily life with his mother on the family farm, and also these young people to whom he passes on the love of the profession, of rugby, of family.

In January 2024, at the time of the road blockages, he became one of the figures of the anger of farmers in Occitania. With his friends from the “Les ultras de l’A64” movement, he defends rural, family agriculture, but also more departmentalized, because the issues vary depending on the region. In Haute-Garonne, for example, a region very affected by global warming, operators are demanding solutions for access to water.

But here as elsewhere, farmers above all need to be heard and seek to regain freedom of decision-making on their own land. As the sociologist François Purseigle who worked with me on the film says: “What they defend in the first place is the social recognition of their function, that of small rural entrepreneurs who shape the territories. »

But this is not a sociologist’s film. We feel a closeness with your character…

I have a feeling of brotherhood towards Jérôme. It is a kind of mirror. We are the same age and both of our farmer fathers killed themselves. But they left us the soul of agricultural culture. In this film, I try to restore hope where it had disappeared. Jérôme’s ultimate quest, like mine, is a quest for family and transmission.

Jérôme Bayle is also a controversial figure. The name of his association, Les ultras de l’A64, may be worrying. Are you aware of this?

Yes, I was aware of this from the launch of the project. But I also knew that he was above all a very sensitive, peaceful man of dialogue and attentive to others. “Les ultras” was originally the nickname of the rugby team of Jérôme and his friends. Neither ultra-left nor ultra-right, these farmers are rather ultra-friendly. And above all, they want to continue playing as a team, like on a rugby field.

According to certain commentators, Jérôme Bayle is a former member of the Rural Coordination and carries radical ideas.

This is false. He never belonged to the Rural Coordination. It is non-union and apolitical. He never took violent action. The victory of the Ultras list of the A64 in the last elections of the Chamber of Agriculture of Haute-Garonne (early 2025, editor’s note) shows that they are inventing a new way to make their voices heard. They had babies in Isère, in Normandy, in Brittany.

For everyone, the union is no longer the only model for feeling represented. When in my film Jérôme meets the national secretary of Europe Écologie Les Verts, Marine Tondelier, and the president of the FNSEA*, Arnaud Rousseau, he invites them: “Let’s do it together! »

In January 2024, the mobilization of Jérôme Bayle and his collective caused the blocking of the A64, in the town of Carbonne, for 33 days. This action may have disturbed…

The demonstrators had created a relief lane on the highway, which only slowed down motorists by a quarter of an hour. It was a peaceful operation, without violence or vandalism. They even cleaned everything after their visit. At the Carbonne dam, mayors and families met in a tavern atmosphere.

On Christmas Eve, a midnight mass was celebrated under a large marquee. There were 600 people there, two priests and even a nativity scene with animals. Some farmers said they would have “felt very lonely” without the ceremony. One of them even confided: “If it hadn’t been for this mass, I had planned to end it this evening. » It moves me to tell it, because they became a community that evening.

Why did you want to screen your film in agricultural high schools?

To create vocations, you have to create enchantment. This is what happens in the film during the meeting between Jérôme and two teenagers new to the village. By discovering the world of the earth and animals, they break away from their fascination with screens.

With Lulu, Jérôme’s mother, all these little people gradually begin to become a family during meals. Jérôme passes on his profession to the two young people, while discovering his desire for fatherhood. Today, one of them is wearing a “Future Farmer” t-shirt and is preparing to go to agricultural school. I want to film what is good in humans.

* National Federation of Farmers’ Unions.