Educational activity around the short film The Employment
Share your emotions, express yourself in front of others, argue.
The Employment © Santiago Bou & Patricio Plaza
TitleThe Employment
Genre & keywordssatire
Age (for film)9-11 years old
Duration7 min7 s
DirectorSantiago Bou Grasso
MusicSantiago Bou & Patricio Plaza
ProductionOpusBou (Argentina, 2008)
Oral discussions on the short film, making hypotheses about the ending, oral and written activities on the theme of slavery.
This short film presents us with a very strange and surprising world in which men are relegated to the rank of objects in the service of others. We follow the main character who wakes up at the start of the video, and we discover his world little by little. He exploits individuals who seem to be his slaves, they serve as tables, chairs, lampposts, coat racks... When he leaves his home, we realize that the world is made like this: those who take advantage of others and those who are reduced to this form of slavery. This character seems to be one of the slavers until we see him, at the end of the film, being used as a doormat! A film about the exploitation of man by man.
Watch the film and stop at 4:20. Ask the students their impressions and what they understood about the story. Then invite them to make hypotheses about the ending. What do you think happens next? This activity can be done orally or in writing. Share ideas together and watch the end. Gather student feedback again after this surprising ending.
Then ask them their opinion on the functioning of this society and invite them to justify and argue: is this normal? Is this fair? Is this world pleasant? How could we define it? If the idea was not mentioned in previous discussions, get them to draw a parallel with slavery. Take the dictionaries and ask the children to look up the definition of the word “slave”: person who is not free and who is completely dependent on another. Does this apply to this film? What do they know about slavery?
This session could be the starting point for a more detailed sequence on the theme of slavery based on France tv Éducation videos on the notion of slavery and triangular trade.
Then make a short summary with the children to copy into the notebook which will serve as a written record. To be linked to the history program on colonial empires.
Activity sheet written by: Valérie du blog Val 10. Discover the Val 10 blog...
