Farrebique

Farrebique is the first feature-length work for French documentary filmmaker Georges Rouqier. Filmed in 1944 and 45, the focus is on one year in the life of a rural French family, observing them through the seasons. The family, cousins of the director living in the farming community of Aveyron in South-central France, act out sequences that correspond to actual events unfurling in their lives. Ideas of modernisation are slowly introduced; the notion of installing electricity for example is debated heatedly among key family members whilst the manual labours of farming life are clearly displayed. A fine example of ‘cinema verite’, the cycle of the seasons is linked to the cycles of life — birth, death, renewal — providing a humanist view of nature and the intrinsic phases of rural life. Featuring beautiful time-lapse photography to display the coming of Spring, the film can be read as a paean to a bucolic life, observing the minutiae of nature as well as documenting the hardships of working the land. This fascinating work is highly regarded and won numerous awards including the FIPRESCI Prize at Cannes, 1946.