Farmer Profile: Meet the Face of Rural France’s Protests

In the world of information an immutable rule prevails : one news chases the other. Jérôme Bayle [prononcer Baïle, il y tient beaucoup] achieved the feat of holding the media spotlight for days, going from radio to television, expressing a little louder than the others the distress of French farmers. It is at the heart of the documentary Ruralto be discovered in theaters Wednesday March 4.

His real passion, apart from rugby, cycling and hunting, is the farm where he lives with his mother, nicknamed Lulu, and the abysmal lack of his father. Breeder in Montesquieu-Volvestre, in Haute-Garonne, Jérôme Bayle gives his whole soul to this touching documentary. It presents itself as “farmer and president of the Ultras de l’A64“, a non-union and apolitical association.

The director of this documentary, Édouard Bergeon, is plowing his furrow. This 43-year-old former journalist, who worked in the France 2 editorial team, shoots documentaries and magazines for television, often devoted to the world of farmers in which he grew up. In 2019, he entered cinema through the front door with the unexpected triumph of his first feature film, In the name of the earth. This film, in which Guillaume Canet plays his father, a debt-ridden and depressed farmer who committed suicide, attracted two million spectators. In 2024, in the documentary Women of the earththis time he paid tribute to his mother, his grandmother and all farmers’ wives.

Édouard Bergeon had the idea for this new film which he describes as “cinema of reality” when the Carbonne dam was formed on the A 64 motorway linking Bayonne to Toulouse, at the end of January 2024. He and his co-writer, the sociologist François Puseigle, felt that something new was happening in this movement that the public authorities had not seen coming. In addition, the elections to the Chamber of Agriculture, organized only every six years, were approaching, making the context all the more interesting.

Those who know the work of Édouard Bergeon will quickly understand that the man he chose to follow, camera in hand, for a year and a half resembles him. “We have hooked hematomas“, he said nicely. “It’s a kind of mirror of myselfhe specifies in an interview with Franceinfo. We are the same age, we have fathers who unfortunately had the same trajectory and who both ended their lives. We have the same family situation, we love sport (…). He has a big mouth, me maybe a little less”.

He describes him as a frank man, extremely sensitive beneath his gruff exterior, capable of dialoguing with everyone, including those with whom he disagrees. The director explores all aspects of the character, well beyond his media facade.

There is no commentary in this film, which can be confusing at first, especially if you have not carefully followed the mobilization of farmers from winter 2024. We should not be alarmed because little by little the situations become clearer and the issues germinate. Jérôme Bayle first appears as the man that all television and radio stations are chasing [voir l’extrait du film ci-dessous]. He is a “good customer”, a journalistic expression meaning that he is comfortable, concise and clear in his comments. In the cinema, we will undoubtedly say that he bursts the screen.

The director then shows the B side, that of a cattle breeder who works a lot, often at night. A DIY ace, loving to sing at the top of his lungs in his tractor and being ecstatic over the murmurs. A man surrounded by friends, single without children, still living under the same roof as his mother in a house with rustic comfort. The truculent Lulu says that as a child, Jérôme was turbulent and always wanted to impose himself. “It’s coming out now“, she tackles.

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A fan of promotional caps and T-shirts, Jérôme Bayle seems to care little about his appearance. No suit, no tie but a beautiful floral shirt when he meets politicians. In the film, he appears with Marine Tondelier, François Ruffin, Gabriel Attal and Emmanuel Macron. Visiting the Agricultural Show, the President of the Republic calls him by his first name; the breeder tells him that he will have to “come down to see the sadness of the farmers.” “We’ve been abandoned for too long“, he adds. He will succeed in convincing Gabriel Attal, just appointed Prime Minister, to travel to speak with farmers live, on the A64 dam in Carbonne.

Invited by the national secretary of Ecologists in Toulouse, the Occitan breeder also defends his vision of the profession in front of green activists: “I don’t do organic farming but sustainable farming.” he said. He is on the side of locavores and would like children to eat quality French meat in canteens. Another sequence, very revealing, takes place in the agricultural advisor’s office. The breeder must declare, one by one, the occupation of all the plots he cultivates to feed his livestock. His interlocutor uses Newspeak, strewn with obscure acronyms. Jerome judges that “it became a gas factory“and understands”that some people are losing their minds“Every 15 days, an aerial photo is taken to verify that the crops comply with the declarations to obtain state aid.”Otherwise, you are failed“, he concludes.

The unique personality of Jérôme Bayle, his vision of rurality, his debates with agricultural unions would be enough to make the documentary interesting. But there is a film within the film which gives it an additional and much more touching dimension. She appears when a young woman enters the field. She arrives from Moselle to visit a house that Jérôme Bayle is renting, less than 2 kilometers from his farm. Deal done. The lady will return to settle down shortly after with her two children, a girl and a boy.

A strong relationship is then forged between this tall bearded man, a former rugby player, and these children from elsewhere. We won’t say more to let you discover touching images that say much more than words. Plans that return to us like the R of Rural on the poster of this impressionist film. A nod to the signs that farmers have turned up at the entrance and exit of cities to signal their anger. In the South-West, many still have their heads upside down.

Genre : Documentary
Realization : Édouard Bergeon
Screenwriters: Édouard Bergeon, François Purseigle, Ludovic Gaillard
Musique : Thomas Dappelo
Pays : France
Duration : 1H34
Sortie : 4 mars 2026
Distributer : Day2Party
Production : Northwest
Synopsis : Édouard Bergeon (In the Name of the Earth) immerses us in the life of Jérôme Bayle, a charismatic breeder from the South-West and a national figure of rurality. With humor and tenderness, he paints a sensitive portrait of French family farming today and of those who fight to make it last.