Overview

Robert Ménégoz’s film depicting the struggles of French dockworkers in the winter and early spring of 1950 is meant to evoke the feelings of insecurity, exertion and danger of this profession whose rights were not sufficiently reflected in post-war France. At the same time, the heroic image of dockworkers is meant to mobilize against American policy, the Marshall Plan, German rearmament and the war in Indochina. Banned by the censors in France, the film won the Grand Prix for Documentary at the 1951 Karlovy Vary Film Festival.