68, My Father And The Nails
Samuel Bigiaoui
2017 - 70 min - vidéo Full HD - Couleur - France

Bricomonge is a hardware shop ran by my father Jean, it is situated in the rue Monge, in the 5th arrondissement of Paris. People coming from different countries and cultures work there, in a warm and friendly atmosphere. Zora is Algerian, José is from Portugal, Mangala is Sri-Lankan, Quan, Vietnamese… Visited by regulars, true figures of the neighbourhood, Bircomonge happens to be a nerve centre of the social life of this area and often appears as an Agora. The son of a lawyer and of a literature teacher, more than discreet about himself, I know that my dad got involved into politics at very young age, while studying economy, and during the event of 68.
Bricomonge will close by the end of 2014. At the time of the final inventory and before everything my imagination as a child thrived on, I want to know. This film tries to answer a question I’ve been asking myself since I was a child: how come a man such as my father, rather smart and cultivated, decided to open a hardware store at forty years old? Because, here it is, of my father, I know almost nothing, except that he sells nails.