''Half a Life'' (french: Mourir à 30 ans) is a 1982 film directed by

Romain Goupil Romain-Pierre Charpentier (born July 12, 1951, in Paris) known professionally as Romain Goupil, is a French filmmaker. He was a college leader during the May 1968 civil unrest in France and was for a long time a trotskyist militant. During the 20 ...

, which won the

Caméra d'Or The Caméra d'Or ("''Golden Camera''") is an award of the Cannes Film Festival for the best first feature film presented in one of the Cannes' selections (Official Selection, Directors' Fortnight The Directors' Fortnight (french: Quinzaine des ...

and Award of the Youth (French film) at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

, and the

César Award for Best Debut Cesar, César or Cèsar may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''César'' (film), a 1936 film directed by Marcel Pagnol * ''César'' (play), a play by Marcel Pagnolt * César Award, a French film award Places * Cesar, Portugal * C ...

br>

Plot

The film is a biographical black-and-white documentary about Michel Recanati, a militant leader during the

May 1968 The following events occurred in May 1968: May 1, 1968 (Wednesday) * CARIFTA, the Caribbean Free Trade Association, was formally created as an agreement between Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago. * RAF Strike ...

riots in Paris. It tells the story of two friends through the left-wing groups in Paris between 1966 and 1978 when Michel goes missing and it is later discovered that he committed suicide. It is a personal tale as well as an in-depth look at the political scene in France during those years. It also documents the history of the CAL ighschool Student Action Committeeand the LCR Revolutionary Communist League .

Main protagonists

Much of the original footage filmed over 10 years before the 1982 movie documentary was also filmed by Goupil. His father Pierre worked in the cinema and Romain armed with a super 8 camera took some footage of the student riots and meetings from that time in Paris. There is footage of speeches by

Alain Krivine Alain Krivine (; 10 July 1941 – 12 March 2022) was a French Trotskyist leader. Early life Krivine was born in July 1941 in Paris, France, the child of Pierre Léon Georges Krivine, a stomatologist, and Esther Lautman, the sister of French ...

a leader of the

Trotskyist Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a ...

movement in France and a member of the Revolutionary Communist League known by the acronym LCR Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire . Other key figures of the French Left are interviewed at various points in the documentary. They include Trotskyst journalist Maurice Najman , also Henri Weber when he was a leading member of the

Revolutionary Communist Youth known in French as: (JCR) Jeunesse communiste révolutionnaire and also a member of Revolutionary Communist League (LCR)

External links

* 1982 films French documentary films 1980s French-language films 1982 documentary films May 1968 events in France Best First Feature Film César Award winners Caméra d'Or winners 1982 directorial debut films 1980s French films {{poli-documentary-film-stub