A Place to Fight For

Director and screenwriter Romain Cogitore announced the project (then-titled Zad) in an interview for French newspaper Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace on 26 February 2016.[8] The screenplay was co-written by Cogitore, Thomas Bidegain and Catherine Paillé,[9][10] and it was inspired by a real-life scandal that happened in England[10] and hit the European press in 2011, revealing long-term police missions of eco-infiltrators, some of them even had children with activists before disappearing.[11][12][13] The film was produced by Chi-Fou-Mi Productions.[1] Mathieu Lamboley composed the film's original score.[14]

The project was developed through the TorinoFilmLab Script & Pitch programme in 2016 under the title A Zone to Defend.[11]

On 11 July 2022, Disney+ announced the shooting of its first original French film, Une zone à défendre, directed by Romain Cogitore with François Civil and Lyna Khoudri in the lead roles,[15] and that it was set to be released on Disney+ in France and around the world in 2023.[15][1] Cogitore had previously directed Civil in his feature film directorial debut, the 2011 World War II drama 15 Lads (Nos Résistances).[16] This film, whose English title is A Place to Fight For,[17] is the third collaboration between Civil and Khoudri, who had worked together on the French dubbing of the animated film Lightyear in 2022, and also co-starred in the two-part saga The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan and The Three Musketeers: Milady, both released in 2023.[18]

Cogitore explained the film in a press release in July 2022:

With 'A Place to Fight For', I want to place environmental and political issues within the framework of a love story, to place myself in a double cinematographic genre - the undercover film and melodrama - to recount a moment in our contemporary history, which zadists and collapsologists call "the collapse of the old world".[15]

While shooting their first film together in 2009, 15 Lads, which had young guerrillas as protagonists, Cogitore and Civil wondered "who are the resistance fighters today?", and the ZAD seemed to be the place of the current fight in France to them. "It corresponded to a moment in my life when I was beginning to have an ecological conscience, and their fight touches me. I have a lot of admiration for people who take a step aside from the irrepressible march of our world, those who go against the grain, swim against the tide. This radicalism, these sacrifices in the service of noble causes, such as equality, social justice, respect for the environment, it inspires me," Civil told Le Figaro.[19] Cogitore said that after his second film, Territory of Love (2018), he wanted to work on a melodrama again and wondered what impossible love could be told today. "An undercover cop falling in love with someone on the opposite side, that seemed like a good place to start. The basis of the story is love. That's what led me to discover the ZAD", Cogitore told TF1.[20]

Cogitore extensively investigated the ZADs and even lived at a ZAD along with environmental activists in order to make the film more credible.[21] The director immersed himself in one of the largest ZADs in France where he explained his project to activists.[22] "I wanted to be extremely faithful, not to be above ground. I'm not the only one to have this desire to tell the story of the ZAD or the investment of activists, but it's complicated in the production system. We are told that it's not glamorous", he said.[22] Cogitore also asked Civil to read the book Undercover: The True Story of Britain's Secret Police to prepare himself for the film.[21]

Khoudri said that what made her accept the film was the script–it was the first time that she had read something like that and had access to this universe.[23] She did not know the ZADs before accepting the project, and when she met Cogitore, who spent a lot of time at the ZAD, it really captivated her.[23] Civil said he accepted the project due to his history with Cogitore, as they have remained close since working together in 15 Lads, so when Cogitore offered him the role of Greg, he said "yes" immediately.[23]

When French magazine Numéro asked the two main actors about the impact the film could have, Khoudri said; "With this film, it's the first time that we've really entered a ZAD... I just hope that we haven't betrayed anyone, because there is necessarily a responsibility that comes with the fact that the story can resonate with the news. But it is difficult to anticipate the impact that the film could have." And Civil added; "Yes, it's true that the impact is very hard to measure, but the origin of the project, and what convinced us, was this: trying to show a ZAD, in a more realistic way than parodic representations, cliche or that we can see on the news channels that tell us a little about the same scenes of riots. We really tried to pay tribute to these people who sacrifice part of their comfort for their ideals and their commitment. As Lyna said, we were lucky to have Romain who investigated the ZADs a lot and who fed us with all that."[23]

Principal photography started on 13 June 2022 and wrapped on 12 August 2022.[2][24] Filming took place in Paris, Essonne, Marseille, Normandy and Melun.[2][25]

Nearly 200 extras acted on the film, and nearly two-thirds of the extras were real Zadists.[26] It was not possible to shoot on a real ZAD due to restricted access and ecological reasons.[26] Production designer Pascale Consigny and head set builder Gérard David recreated an entire ZAD based on the photos provided by director Romain Cogitore,[26] who had spent a lot of time on a ZAD at Notre-Dame-des-Landes.[26]

According to the streaming aggregator JustWatch, A Place to Fight For was the 5th most streamed film across all platforms in France during the weekend of 8-9 July 2023.[36]

AlloCiné, a French cinema site, gave the film an average rating of 3.3/5, based on a survey of 8 French reviews.[37]

Sandrine Bajos of Le Parisien gave the film 4 out of 5 stars and wrote; "Behind what might look like a nice melodrama, Romain Cogitore signs an important and useful film on commitment, the dying planet and the zadists, these activists who regularly make the headlines. Carried by a very good duo of actors, this film is a very nice surprise."[37]

Yoann Jenan of Télé Loisirs gave the film 4 out of 5 stars and wrote; "From this hybrid film is born a story that holds up from start to finish."[37]

Laurent Djian of Télé 7 Jours gave the film 3 out of 5 stars, calling it "A fiction without downtime, which intelligently navigates between thriller and romantic drama."[37]

Augustin Pietron-Locatelli of Télérama gave the film 3 out of 5 stars, writing; "Far from the frank “society” comedy that one might fear, the first French production of Disney+ is a melodrama more interested in romance than politics."[37]

Fabrice Leclerc of Paris Match wrote; "Carried by an elegant staging, daring sequence shots, "A Place to Fight For" is a beautiful object of cinema and confirms, if it were still needed, the talent of François Civil, who carries from start to finish this well thought-out movie."[38]