The Flag

 

Yasser, a human rights activist, travels around Paris to deliver a message that no one wants to hear. Juxtaposing current events with archival material, Joseph and Yasser seek to understand why our freedoms have been in steady decline for several years. The Flag’ begins the day after the attacks of 13th November 2015 in Paris, France. It documents the intensification of security measures, the decline in civil liberties, from the rule of law, and goes to meet those who are subjected to its effects and who together try to resist it or survive; citizens of the Muslim confession in Nice, grieving the attacks of 14th July, of up to a third of the victims and their exclusion the day after; families in the Paris suburbs, victims of police persecutions since the state of emergency was declared; or in Paris and Calais, exiled communities and French citizens campaigning beside them.

Alternately, going over some key events of the last thirty years, the film analyses the progressive and methodical construction of a political discourse that has become widespread to the point of becoming commonplace. This official narrative aims to point out the ‘enemies within’.

  • IDFA Forum 2021
  • CPH DOX 2023
  • One World 2023
  • Movies that matter 2023
  • États généraux du film documentaire 2023
  • Nuremberg International Human Rights Film Festival 2023
  • Festival des Libertés 2023
  • FIFDH 2024
  • UnArchive Found Footage Festival 2024
  • Cinéma sous les étoiles 2024
  • Memorimage 2024

Press review

A furious, iconoclastic attack on power and the media in a modern France where Islamophobia has become mainstream and inequality is growing from the suburbs to the boulevards.

Cph dox →

Director Joseph Paris filmed dozens of hours of interviews and collected a large amount of material from the French media. From the fragments of these he has compiled a visual essay on the decline of civil liberties in France.

One World →

Following the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris, France declared the state of emergency. This set in motion an exit from the rule of law, with Muslims as the first, but not the only victims. Urgent, philosophical and visually interesting plea in defence of civil liberties and equality.

Movies that matter →

A provocative depiction to the barely-hidden Islamophobia that exists in France, experimental filmmaker Joseph Paris exposes the malevolent media dynamics and the draconian state powers the government has operationalised following the attacks in Paris & Nice in 2015-6.

Radical Art Review →

Joseph Paris fell into a state of mourning following the Paris terror attacks of 13 November, 2015, in which 130 people were killed and more than 350 injured in coordinated assaults across the French capital. It was the deadliest attack on French soil in modern history and left the country in a state of shock. However, the filmmaker was also alarmed by the government response.

Hyphen →

Collages, split-screens and a Guy Debordian vandalisation of the (media) image itself testify to Joseph Paris’ active background in the ‘copyleft’ movement and video art. An alarming and radically critical report from a time when social divisions are widening and clashes between state power and civilians are on the rise.

Cph dox →
Yasser Louati at Movies That Matter film festival.

The Hague · 2023

Screening of the film at the FIFDH

Geneva · 2024

Angela Davis speaks after the screening of the film, surrounded by Assa Traoré, Nesrine Slaoui and Yasser Louati.

Geneva · 2024

Panel on police violence after the screening of the film at the FIFDH, with Angela Davis, Rokhaya Diallo, Assa Traoré, Nesrine Slaoui and Yasser Louati.

Geneva · 2024

Assa Traoré, Angela Davis, Nesrine Slaoui.

Geneva · 2024

Speech by the mayor of Geneva Alfonso Gomez before the screening of the film.

Geneva · 2024

Q&A with Joseph Paris and Yasser Louati at Movies That Matter film festival.

The Hague · 2023

Q&A with Yasser Louati at Movies That Matter film festival.

The Hague · 2023

Activists night at Movies That Matter film festival.

The Hague · 2023

Joseph Paris presenting the work-in-progress editing of the film at the IDFA 2022 festival.

Amsterdam · 2022

Presentation of the work-in-progress editing at the IDFA 2022 festival, with Audrey Ferrarese (producer) and Joseph Paris.

Amsterdam · 2022

  • A film by Joseph Paris
  • Documentary · 2023
  • With Yasser Louati
  • Zohra Kraiker
  • Wassil Kraiker
  • Amal Bentounsi
  • Feiza Ben Mohamed
  • Mohammed Abaïd
  • Vincent Gay
  • Thomas Deltombe
  • Slimane Dazi
  • Assa Traoré
  • Abdellali Hajat
  • Vanessa Codaccioni
  • Mireille Delmas-Marty
  • Image and editing Joseph Paris
  • Production Drole de Trame
  • Produced by Audrey Ferrarese
  • Narrator Logan de Carvalho
  • Original music Pierre Paris
  • Sound creation Alejandro Van Zandt-Escobar
  • Illustrations Matthieu Fayette
  • Additional image editing Flore Guillet
  • Editing assistants Robin Gaussé, Eugénie Gaubert, Matthieu Grosmaire
  • Color grading Dimitri Darul
  • Additional color grading Eric Heinrich
  • Mixing Michel Depuis
  • International Distribution CAT&Docs
  • Theatrical distribution Destiny Films
  • With the support of:
  • CNC
  • Région Île-de-France
  • PROCIREP & ANGOA
  • © 2023 · Drole de Trame ·