Young nurse Nour (Zita Hanrot) returned home after an unfortunate set of circumstances killed a patient at the hospital where she worked. At the urging of her father Slimane (Sami Bouajila), she will be employed in a chemical factory where he has been working for thirty years and where he is the head of the union. Nour will accept the job of a nurse in a factory, but it will soon become clear to her that something very strange is happening there. Numerous workers have not been examined for 15 years, no one answers her calls, and the alarm bell will ring even more when one of the workers has an accident in the factory and her father is the one who will persuade the man not to report anything.
Soon, Nour will also meet freelance journalist Emma (Céline Sallette), who is investigating various irregularities around the factory, pollution, unhealthy working conditions for workers, cover-ups and embezzlement on the basis of which the factory continues to obtain work permits. When she realizes what is happening, Nour will become a whistleblower and will try to provide Emma with material evidence to confirm everything that is already known, but in addition to jeopardizing her own business, she will be left without a family. As is often the case, this factory is practically the only workplace for more than 200 people from the provincial town, and although they are probably all aware that not only toxic waste pollutes the environment, but also destroys their own health, they all have a vow they are silent and do not want anything to come out.
“Rouge” or “Red Soil” was another film thematically based on “Erin Brockovich”, activist thrillers – a drama about current issues based on real events, but the situation is worse for Nour because her whole family is connected to the factory. Her old man is an informal leader of the workers and a person trusted by the owner who makes it clear to his daughter that he is not thrilled with her behavior, and Nour’s sister is just marrying a man who also works in a factory. She will find herself in serious moral dilemmas because she is well aware that a lot of bad things are happening in the factory, but she knows that her father and others will never forgive her if any information leaks out thanks to her.
This quality thriller – a drama shot in a classic naturalistic style with a handheld camera – was supposed to be one of the films shown in the official competition of canceled Cannes 2020, and screenwriter-director Farid Bentoumi skillfully avoided stereotyping situations when it comes to films on this topic. There is nothing black and white and it is somewhat clear to us why all these workers are fighting tooth and nail for the factory to pass the inspectorate’s control, even though they are aware that a lot of bad things are happening there for the environment and for themselves. The job in the factory is the only thing they have and if the factory closes, they all lose their jobs. The lack of money and hungry children today or lung cancer in 10 or 15 years, there is no doubt about them, and “Rouge” was another in a series of films that brilliantly show all the cynicism and absurdity of the world we live in.