Lucien Pouëdras, the bocage for memory
by Serge Steyer
52 min - 2026
In coproduction with les Films de la Pluie, TVR, Tébéo, Tébésud,
With the support of Région Bretagne and CNC (production assistance).
SYNOPSIS
The bocage for memory is an immersion in the pictorial universe that Lucien Pouëdras has been creating since the early 1970s. The stability of his approach and style throughout these decades allows our gaze to move seamlessly from one painting to the next, delving ever deeper into his social drama: the hedged farmland surrounding his parents' farm.
Thus, Pouëdras depicts his memories of the years 1945-50, when he was between 8 and 13 years old. Through his paintings, he shares his perspective with us in scenes where he portrays himself playing with his friends, helping his father, witnessing the postman's visit, or attending some Sunday ceremony… Beyond personal experience, it is the representation of an era that emerges.
His first-person account takes us back to a bygone world where the relationship to nature, time, the body, and others was radically different and perhaps quite inspiring for us, caught in the current turmoil.
THE DIRECTOR
Originally from Strasbourg, Serge Steyer began his career in the mid-1980s. His filmography now includes more than forty films, many of which have won awards. The films he directs for and with public service broadcasters – France 2, France 3, France 5, and Arte – fall into three categories: portraits of artists or intellectuals, issues of local democracy and ecology, and a look at the Vosges Mountains and Alsace, his native region. The common thread running through these films is a search for solutions, a denunciation of what is not working, through a demonstration of how private interests clash with the public good. These documentaries also highlight the cultural barriers that prevent real change.
Since 2004, Serge Steyer has devoted an increasing amount of his time first to Films en Bretagne, and then to KuB, which he founded and for many years served as managing director. Founder of a film club in Le Bono, Morbihan, he has also been involved in various forms of practical ecology.
He co-directed two documentaries with Stéphane Manchematin: *Le complexe de la salamandre* (2014), a portrait of the Lorraine artist Patrick Neu, and *Suzanne, jour après jour* (2021) and *L'esprit des lieux* (2018), a sound companion to the first, focusing on the work of sound recordist Marc Namblard. This film received the SCAM's 2020 Audiovisual Work of the Year Award. In 2022, he directed *Les aventuriers du match perdu*, a documentary that follows the creative process behind Massimo Furlan's performance, *Le cauchemar de Séville*, a ballless reenactment of the legendary France-Germany match during the 1982 World Cup.
Previous works with Ana Films :
Suzanne, jour après jour, Stéphane Manchematin and Serge Steyer (2023)
L'esprit des lieux, Stéphane Manchematin and Serge Steyer (2018)
Les aventuriers du match perdu, Serge Steyer (2022)
