Les moineaux de Trégain (The sparrows of Trégain)

Les Moineaux de Trégain was created as part of artist Éléonore Saintagnan's residency at Trégain Elementary School in March 2021, with the collaboration of CM1-CM2 students, Florian Berutti as cinematographer, Pierre-Yves Dubois as sound recordist, and Gabriel Mattei as composer.

In 2021, Éléonore Saintagnan conducted research on birds, their ecosystems, and their relationships with humans in Brittany and throughout history—particularly in medieval Europe and under Mao's dictatorship in China.

The film is inspired by a historical event:
In 1958, Mao Zedong launched the "Great Sparrow Campaign" in China. In English, it sounds like a grand celebration, yet it was far from it. Soviet engineers had calculated that the ten million sparrows in China stole 25,000 tons of rice grains annually from farmers. Following a major hygiene campaign to eliminate rats, flies, and mosquitoes, Mao decided to target the sparrows, which were seen as food thieves, and aimed to eradicate them completely. He launched a propaganda campaign to encourage the Chinese population to disperse the birds (…) The massacre took on a festive atmosphere. Anti-sparrow songs were invented (…) In 72 hours, ten million sparrows were killed. However, the campaign had the opposite effect. Sparrows not only eat grains but also insects, and without their predators, the insects thrived. Locusts destroyed almost all the crops, leading to famine and a new human catastrophe.

Éléonore Saintagnan invited the students to revisit this campaign scene, drawing inspiration from the aesthetics of Maoist propaganda posters and films. During the filming, the artist and students created drawn banners, a giant piñata in the shape of a bird, and songs about sparrows.