Eléonore Pourriat, whose short film imagines how a man might experience a sexual assault in a matriarchal society, says 'I wanted it to be not so realistic but frightening,' reports Paula Cocozza, feature writer for The Guardian in its 'Women's Blog' section.
Have you seen the film Oppressed Majority (Majorité Opprimée)? In less than a week since its director Eléonore Pourriat uploaded it to YouTube, the version with English subtitles has been watched over 2.3m times – and rising.
The 10-minute film tells the story of Pierre, an ordinary guy, on an ordinary day, in an unnamed French town. But something is different in Pierre's world. Women are in charge. They run around barechested – hey, it's hot! – piss in an alley, and offer sexual favours to Pierre when he is stuck at a red light. (He's riding a bike, so his lack of physical barriers provides an opportunity if not a provocation.)
Events culminate when Pierre is sexually assaulted at knifepoint. Inevitably, the police officer who takes Pierre's statement is female. She raises an eyebrow, but only to check for accuracy: "She pinched my testicles … then she took my penis in her mouth and bit it"?
Ouch. Why that particular assault? "It is the complex of castration," Pourriat says, speaking from Paris. "The worst fright of men. I wanted it to be not so realistic but frightening."
Pourriat made her film five years ago. It won an award at a festival in Kiev but made little impact in France or online. So why its contagion now?
"Actually, when I made it I hoped there would be an interest like this," she says. "In France five years ago people asked me if being a feminist was so contemporary. Today no one asks. The feminist fight is more important now. Five years ago I felt like an alien. Now my film is making a buzz because rights are in danger. You see that in Spain with abortion rights. The whole thing about marriage for all, the homophobia and sexism. It is like a black tide today in France."
One of the strengths of Oppressed Majority is the completeness of its matriarchal vision. No woman lets the side down. They all play their part, right down to Pierre's wife, whose lack of sympathy chills. She would have come to Pierre's side sooner but was held up at work. "I couldn't get out of the meeting … But I think I really knocked 'em dead." Why is she so brutal?
Read more of this blog post from The Guardian.