A great movie about three French women threatened with redundancy when the factory they work in is faced with closure and relocation to the Asian subcontinent. In a battered old car they set off to India to accept the 'offer', by the creeps in the HR department, of a job in the new factory - on local wages, with no flight to take them there, and no pension or benefits... Crossing Poland, Ukraine, Russia and Kazakstan, their number is gradually whittled to one, the determined and aneponymous heroine, Aglaé. This is a satire on the disgusting and heartbreaking aspects of globalisation, outsourcing and pitting one worker against another. But for all the trials and tribulations of the heroine, it is also an affirmation of ordinary people, even the Russian border guard who insists on singer a song for the singer folk who are smuggling Aglaé across his border... Fab work for this debut Canadian French director. Fabulous to have shot over so many countries. And the final message? The true face of globalisation? People.
Review of Crash Test Aglaé
