From Romain Gavras’ ‘Athena’ to ‘La Commune’: the anger is there, so why no revolution?
Why is the distance between rejecting an order and building another in its place so great? Romain Gavras’ 2022 film “Athena” does less to answer this question than to set it before us in all its violence. With a sense of movement that grows each time the crowds enter the frame, and a dizzying editing pace, the film shows how anger can turn into a collective energy.
We no longer need long explanations to understand that an order has become unsustainable. One by one, the order’s promises have lost their gilding; the kings have long since been left naked. So how, in this new world, will naked kings be brought down from their thrones? We do not yet know. What we do know is that when people rise up against an order imposed on them, those in power often see it as chaos and anarchy. Yet behind the anger rising in the streets lies the fact that the existing order has become unacceptable.
What do we have on our hands? Economic insecurity, deepening inequality, crises of representation, climate disasters, a collapse of trust in institutions… The same symptoms appear in different corners of the world, in different forms but with striking similarities. Anger builds, the streets boil over, governments are shaken. And every time we arrive at the same question: why is the distance between rejecting an order and building another in its place so great?
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