Series | Academic suburban revolution

Endless theory discussions as a series? Is that supposed to be exciting? It's a bit funny too. Photo: Arte Claudine (Manon Kneuse) was actually supposed to spy on left-wing structures for her lover, a career-hungry police officer, in 1969 at the University of Vincennes just outside Paris. Are there possibly terrorists in the experimental university founded in the wake of the '68 movement, where Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Jean-Francois Lyotard and Alain Badiou taught, among others?

The defensive state would rather close the radical left-wing experiment today rather than tomorrow. But when the sex worker, who lives in a trailer near the university campus, mingles with the educated middle-class would-be revolutionaries, she suddenly realizes that she herself is interested in left-wing theory. So she simply gives her lover and the government the finger. For her role in the eight-part series "The Revoluzzers" (French original: "Camarades"), Manon Kneuse, who has previously appeared more on theater stages than in films, received the award for Best Actress at this year's series festival in Lille. "The Revoluzzers" is a sometimes somewhat ironic, but essentially extremely loving homage to student protests, the '68 movement and theory as a central building block of radical left-wing political understanding.

In view of increasing protest movements at universities from New York to Berlin, especially in connection with the topic of the Middle East and the repeated return of the K groups, the humorous look at the left-wing radical political groups of the '68 movement is certainly relevant to the current situation. It was in Vincennes that this diverse political landscape really blossomed. The experimental university, which was open to all citizens and did not require a university entrance qualification, was a kind of concession to the student protests. Some also saw this as a strategy to shift the protest potential from the city center to the suburbs. There the greats of left-wing theory gave each other a hand and appear in the series in the form of original material. For example, Michel Foucault's speech about the changing repression of the state overlaps with a wiretapping operation with which Claudine's lover wants to collect incriminating material.

When the constantly stressed university director André Merloux (Grégory Gadebois) at some point doesn't know what to do, he suddenly finds himself face to face with Jacques Lacan, who explains to him with a subtle smile that everything is completely different than it seems anyway.

“The Revoluzzers” is a sometimes somewhat ironic, but essentially extremely loving homage to student protests.

It sometimes seems over-the-top and always a little too flat. So the countless political freaks, whether Maoists, feminists, anarchists or libertarian communists and whoever else, parade through the corridors of the new university building, occupy rooms and loudly call for the proletariat with educated bourgeois verve, conduct their never-ending discussions.

As the plot continues, the series, which is aesthetically reminiscent of the Nouvelle Vague, still develops its humor. At the center is a Maoist group, to which political spy Claudine also belongs. The would-be leader is former lecturer Gerard Gerard (Pierre-Francois Garrel), who falls in love with his comrade Francoise (Lulja Comar), which leads to a lot of guilty conscience and plenty of desire. They organize a strike by the cleaning staff and at one point even take the university director hostage. Through Claudine, who actually betrays the entire revolutionary project, the almost insurmountable class differences become clear again and again, which Pierre Bourdieu also has a lot to say about in the original language. In the chaos of Vincennes, the chaos of Vincennes was inspired, of course also narrow-minded, and ultimately dealt with creatively, as the spirit of the times at the time dictated and permitted.

The real merit of this eight-part series is that the comedic series does not drift completely into the arbitrary and even defamatory, but actually tells a beautifully empowering story about the liberating explosive power of political, philosophical and sociological theory.

In one of the half-hour episodes, long stretches are almost exclusively sung, like a kind of chanson musical. “The Revoluzzers” attempts to create an adequate monument to the historical myth of the University of Vincennes, which should, if possible, also be critical enough. It's not an easy balancing act, but somehow it succeeds somewhat in the final scene. The egalitarian university in the Paris suburbs was simply torn down after ten years without much notice with the neoliberal turn in the early 1980s. Jacques Chirac, as mayor of Paris, was happy to pin his lapel on the fact that he had successfully demolished this left-wing fortress. In the lively eight-part series, the story now lives on at least as a somewhat too pleasing fairy tale in series format.

The “nd.Genossenschaft” belongs to those who read and write it. With your contribution, you ensure that our journalism remains accessible to everyone - without any media corporation, billionaire or paywall.

→ report independently and critically → focus on overlooked topics → give marginalized voices a platform → counter misinformation → initiate and further develop left-wing debates

You can make the difference with “Voluntary Pay” or a cooperative share. You help keep this newspaper alive. So that nd remains.