Agricultural World: the Water Divide

Directed by Christophe Nick and Mischa Nick

The mega-basin war rages around the Marais Poitevin. Who's right? How can we explain this lack of water? Behind the issue of providing water for all, two models of agriculture are clashing and tearing the countryside apart. Rural violence is no different from urban violence.

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The Marais Poitevin and surrounding area is the focus of national tensions over water resources. Two opposing visions of the world are at stake when it comes to sharing water: on one side, modern, high-tech farmers, on the other, peasants caught between tradition and innovation. Between them, old grudges and a battle that only intensifies as water becomes scarce and the war of the mega-basins rages on. What is a fair distribution of water in a time of global warming? The result of several months' immersion, this investigation is both historical and current, placing the choices made by some and others in the sequence of public policies since the beginnings of the Fifth Republic.

Directed by: Christophe Nick and Mischa Nick
Written by: Christophe Nick
Production: YAMI 2 - Antoine Boukobza
Broadcaster: France Télévisions
Year of release: 2025
Duration: 58 min

To understand how these irreconcilable positions came about, Christophe and Mischa Nick provide a comprehensive overview of farming in and around the Marais Poitevin since the 1960s. (...) In a soothing tone that contrasts with the violence of the relationship between «pro» and «anti» forces, the documentary's authors give voice to many witnesses of the past and actors of today, whether they call themselves «peasants» in search of a balance with the environment, or «farmers» caught up in a race for gigantism and productivity. Their film shows the impasse into which the latter have plunged, without judging them, but rather incriminating political choices that have never been debated. - Télérama (3T)