11 · 04 · 12 Olivier Assayas presents Après mai at FICM Share with twitter Share with facebook Share with mail Copy to clipboard The public welcomed Assayas with a warm applause and spoke at length about the conflict examined in the film. Après mai takes place in Paris at the beginning of the 1970s, when high school student Gilles becomes involved in the political effervescence of the time. With locations in Italy and London, Assayas immerses himself in the internal debate of the young people of that time who had to choose between political commitment and their personal aspirations. "The characters in Après mai are not melancholic, they only smile less than characters in an adolescent film," Assayas responded when asked why sadness was a constant in the film. The audience insisted on knowing the political motivation and social commitment of Assayas as a filmmaker, including his opinion about the student movements that have emerged in Mexico today. "I'm not a political activist, I'm a filmmaker, but I love and get passionate about everything that has to do with youth movements because they resonate with my past and with things I really believed in."
