What was the idea behind Discount?

I wanted to make a film about the positive consequences that the financial crisis can bring about in people, and about the mutual assistance and sense of solidarity that it is likely to elicit, with characters who would take charge of their own fate.

How did you conduct enquiry to so precisely allude to the tough working conditions of Hard Discount employees and to the often brutal practices of the mass distribution industry?

Cashiers blogs have been my main source of information. They are like bottles tossed into the sea, cries for help. On those blogs, cashiers explain how they are being timed when cashing out customers, as well as during bathroom breaks, among other things. A director forced one of them to clean her cash register every night using bleach and a toothbrush. I drew inspiration from this story to create Christiane’s character, who carries a toothbrush around her neck. I also collected watchmen testimonies. At the beginning of the film, I wanted to emphasize the prison-like atmosphere of the discount store with its body searches, its video surveillance cameras and strict protocol. There are no internal trade unions, as the stores count less than 50 employees; hence the workers’ inability to take action and stand for their rights.

Being both a comedy and a militant movie, Discount falls in with Ken Loach and Stephen Frears’ films.

I tried to depict a bullied micro-society, a situation similar to that of the British society in its post-Thatcher era, like in a “survival mode”. [ ... ] I mostly focused on highlighting how to resist humiliations and scorn by opposing solidarity, friendship and humor.