Conjurer la peur

This film attempts to sketch out what we have in common and what divides us as fellow citizens. It portrays a democracy doubting itself, a threatening authoritarianism, and the danger of division.

This realization is shared by Western leaders—such as Obama, Merkel, and Hollande—just as it was by the Council of Nine governing the Commune of Siena, who in 1338 commissioned Ambrogio Lorenzetti, an early Italian Renaissance painter, to create a fresco intended to "ward off fear."

The notion that "we are at once at war and at peace"—constantly repeated today—thus has deep roots.

On this journey taking us from 21st-century France to 14th-century Italy, our guide will be Patrick Boucheron—a historian deeply engaged with his own times—who approaches history through the impact it creates and the emotions it stirs.

The film will revisit several major moments in our contemporary history—all marked by fear—within democracies in crisis. In the US: George Bush, 9/11, and the Patriot Act. In France: the 2015 attacks, the events that unfolded afterwards at the Place de la République, and the state of emergency. Elsewhere in Europe: the banking crisis in Iceland or Italy.

And the nagging question facing us all: how do we live with our fears? Debt crises, the erosion of social bonds, authoritarianism, and war—these are all fears that echo the figures in Lorenzetti’s paintings. His fresco resonates strikingly today, as if it had a great deal to teach us…

A documentary by IVAN BUTEL

Based on Conjurer la peur, Sienne, 1338, published by Éditions du Seuil / Édition Points.

A Seconde Vague Productions production

With the participation of France Télévisions

With the participation of the CNC

With the support of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Region and Gurkin Invest Films Corse