"Des Hommes" or the humanity of the prisoners of Baumettes prison

By: Sophie Torlotin Follow | Chantal Lorho Follow

"A society judges itself by the state of its prisons," wrote Albert Camus. What would he say then about French society in view of the unworthiness of the detention conditions of many French penal establishments?

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It was at the Baumettes prison in Marseille that two documentary filmmakers set up their cameras for 25 days between 2016 and the closure of the hundred-year-old buildings in 2018. They made their first strong documentary feature, Des Hommes , which has just been released in theaters, in France.

Alice Odiot and Jean-Robert Viallet tell us about the inhuman conditions in which these prisoners live, mainly young people, often two or three in cells of 9 square meters with leprous walls. But the overcrowding or dilapidation of the premises does not seem, in their eyes, the most harmful. It is the abandonment in which we leave these prisoners, locked up 22:30 on 24, victims of violence, turning like lions in cages.

► Read also: Men, overwhelming documentary on the life of a prisoner in France

We also come back this week to the crisis which is shaking the Académie des César, a few days before the 45th ceremony (broadcast on February 28 in clear on Canal +). The director Louis-Julien Petit, member of the Academy, and signatory of the platform launched by personalities of French cinema, demands more transparency and democracy for this institution.

► Read also: France: disputed, the management of the César academy resigns

Finally, Daniel Vallot , RFI's permanent special envoy to Moscow, tells us about the incredible success of the film Kholop ( Serf ) at the Russian box office.

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