Overview
- The documentary premiered on Wednesday, May 20, 2026, on France 3 and is available on demand on France.tv with a runtime of about 1 hour 39 minutes.
- Directors Fabien Béziat and Hugues Nancy built the film around newly curated family archives, testimony from descendants, historians’ commentary and restored color footage, including material sourced from UCLA.
- It reconstructs the May–June 1936 surge of mass strikes and the Matignon negotiations that won tangible gains such as the 40-hour week, pay increases, formal staff delegates, collective agreements and paid holidays, changes that immediately improved workers’ daily lives.
- The film traces why those gains proved fragile, showing how the Spanish Civil War, rearmament needs, fiscal strain and growing repression split the left-wing coalition and opened the way to defeat and Vichy-era suppression.
- Critics describe the film as emotionally powerful and note its topical echoes with current social and political tensions, and the project was produced by Hauteville Productions for the Front populaire’s 90th anniversary.