The French Revolution starts with petty pasture drama and ends with 'now what?'
The story of a small village in Touraine between 1788 and 1789, on the eve of the French Revolution, with its lord, its wealthy peasants, and its poor. The wealthy peasants, expelled from the communal pastures by the count, take him to court. Guillaume Coquard joins the other villagers in drafting the cahiers de doléances (lists of grievances). On the eve of the convocation of the Estates General, the village loses its lawsuit. On the night of August 4, 1789, the deputies vote to abolish privileges. The peasants will be able to buy them back. But the poorest wonder: with what?
Writing
Grievance lists as dramatic tension — paperwork has never slapped harder
Direction
Failevic lets injustice simmer without Hollywood catharsis
Director
Maurice Failevic
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The cahiers de doléances were real historical documents; thousands survive in French archives, capturing ordinary people's unheard voices.
Failevic deliberately avoids the Bastille storming to focus on rural pre-revolution — where change arrives as paperwork, not spectacle.
FR
