Filmed at their place of work in the repetition of their daily gestures, workers in industrial slaughterhouses speak of their suffering. To the early wear out of their bodies due to almost unbearable working paces, are added the nightmares, stress, fear of accidents, the anxiety of a closed-in horizon. Luckily, here we are between Normandy and Brittany, and the seaside is there for moments of relaxation and for their eagerly awaited retirement. 

The picture is gripping: under the neon lighting of a factory that, day and night, turns living animals into portions of meat, the animals’ flesh brutally meets that of humans. Although widely mechanised, the work of slaughtering and butchering is still dangerous, noisy, traumatic and mind-numbing. In a voice off we hear the testimonies of workers (men and women) who tell us what that does to the flesh and soul to spend their lives there, side by side with the animals they kill, that they cut up with axes or knives and then pack to sell – on special offer – in supermarkets. Except for the trade unionists who took the risk to show their faces, the anonymous testimonies form a chorus of all these shattered lives. Posing outside their factory, certain workers mime in a sort of choreography those gestures they perform thousands of times a day and that they refuse to reduce their life to.

Source : Eva Segal

Before becoming a director, Manuela Frésil began her film career as a screenwriter of fiction and documentaries in the 90s. She wrote several fictions: Crossing the Garden (1993), Second Wife (1992) and My Husband's Wife (1992). 1994) where she is interested in the conditions of African immigrant women in Paris.
From 1992, she made documentaries. With Our campaign in 2000, she tried to demystify peasant life then she addressed in 2003 in Si far from the beasts the problem of industrial breeding where the life of the animals, like that of the breeders, is nothing more than a cog in the production system.
Finally in 2008, she wrote the scenario for the Abattoir project where she returns to this universe through the working conditions in the large industrial slaughterhouses of Europe. The text of this documentary, which was the subject of a theatrical production in Poitiers, became Entrance du personnel in 2011. Grand Prix of the French Competition of FIDMarseille, this documentary allows him to complete this cycle around working conditions and animal breeding conditions.
At the same time, she taught cinema in several schools and led video workshops in the 2000s, notably with Le GREC (Groupe de Recherches et Essais Cinematographics).
As part of these workshops, in 2004, with psychotic patients, she produced 7 plus an epilogue or Voisine(s), in 2008, which are video letters written by African immigrant women in Paris.
Source: L’Acid