Behind the cranes, Jean-Stéphane Bron exposes the architecture of inequality

Jean-Stéphane Bron directing his first fiction series, “The Deal”. David Koskas

Widely acclaimed for his documentaries examining power and society, the Swiss filmmaker talks to Swissinfo about his first fiction series, The Deal, and a new documentary, Le Chantier, both of which premiered at this year’s Locarno Film Festival.

Jean-Stéphane Bron, the Swiss documentary filmmaker, premiered his latest documentary Le Chantier (The construction site), and first fiction series The Deal at the 78th Locarno Film Festival. A giant in his field, Bron explores themes from high-level politics to intimate human stories, probing how the world works. His films are both observations on the human condition and explorations of how society functions. 

When I meet Bron in Locarno during the August film festival, he suggests a park bench. A midday breeze softens the heat as we join others in the shade nearby, a fitting setting for a filmmaker whose work portrays the powerful and the ordinary side-by-side 

We begin by talking about Le Chantier, which follows the renovation of the Pathé Palace in the heart of Paris. The historic building reopened to the public in July 2024 after being renovated to accommodate larger cinema halls and a glass atrium.  

The project synthesises themes Bron has long explored, this time through the specific lens of a construction site. It follows the relationships among architects, owners, contractors, engineers, workers, and cleaning staff. Fascinated by the site, he sees it as a metaphor for a post Covid-19 society rebuilding itself.  

“The construction site is perfect because it brings together all the things I like: it’s a closed-off place, one we’re not usually allowed to enter. It’s spectacular, like kinetic art – a monster in movement, going up and down like an installation from [Alexander] Calder or [Jean] Tinguely,” Bron says in reference to the two modernists sculptors.

The iconic Pathé Cinema in Paris is the eponymous construction site featured in “Le Chantier”. Les Films Pelléas

Class politics under a magnifying glass  

Cranes are part of any city’s skyline. These towering machines magically appear overnight heralding the start of construction. But how many of us have ever witnessed one being assembled? In an era dominated by technology and automation, Bron’s camera lingers on what remains stubbornly human: the painstaking, physical labor of construction. The film opens with workers hammering, heaving, and fastening the foundation of a crane – a test of strength and precision. 

To capture the human dimension, Bron made deliberate cinematic choices. Early in the documentary, we are on the top floor of an unfinished building, with a rare 360-degree view of Paris taken at the rooftop level rather than with a street or satellite perspective.  

A distant, hovering satellite view that is often paired with time-lapse filmmaking is a technique Bron pointedly rejects. In that style of filming, “you see the building appear as if by magic. It’s a way of erasing the work, erasing the difficulty of the work, erasing social classes, erasing humans. To me, that is really the contemporary image of capitalism.”  

From his vantage point, the Palais Garnier (opera house) looms nearby, itself the subject of Bron’s 2017 musical documentary The Paris Opera. As in that prior documentary, what interests him in Le Chantier is capturing the behind-the-scenes workings of a major institution, but viewed as a microcosm of society. 

That same approach informs how he distributes screen time. Each person, from construction worker to lead architect, receives equal attention. Abdel Hazak, a construction worker, is no less central in the documentary than Renzo Piano, the Pritzker Prize-winning architect, or Jérôme Seydoux, the French businessman commissioning the project. In doing so, Bron dismantles social hierarchies.  

“The architect is one member of this society, just like the client. Within this society, there are people who have a voice, people who hold power, people who have very little, and people who have none at all. What interests me is observing, deciphering, bringing these dynamics to light. It’s about trying to tell the story of a society at work.”

Renzo Piano, the architect (left), and Jérôme Seydoux, the entrepreneur, in “Le Chantier”. Les Films Pelléas

Lessons on conduct  

Reaching this level of intimacy with his subjects is the result of both experience and a set of guiding principles. Bron’s focus on the human condition began early. A native of Lausanne, he has been active in cinema for three decades. His first short documentary, 12, chemin des Bruyères (12 Bruyères street, 1995), captured the modest struggles of ordinary people living in a building. 

Later works, such as Ma rue de l’Ale (My street Ale, 2022), filmed during Covid-19 on the street where he has lived for eighteen years, continued this close attention to the everyday lives of those around him. Other films take similarly modest entry points: La bonne conduite (The Way I Look at You – Five Stories of Driving School, 2000), examines something both banal and universal, aspiring drivers taking lessons in preparation for their driving test. 

Equally central to his approach is ethics. Bron emphasises that documentary filmmaking is not about passing judgment, but about observing, listening, and understanding. This principle shaped how he gained permission to shoot Le Chantier. One of his core rules is never to show someone being discussed if they are not present in the room.  

“A documentary isn’t a police investigation; it’s an exercise of seeing that involves not only rights but also responsibilities,” he explains. “There are rules. In this case, I told the general contractor: you open your doors to me, to all the meetings – even the most contentious ones. But if someone who isn’t in the room is being talked about, then I won’t show it.”

Construction site: the workers also go to the movies. Les Films Pelléas

At times, Bron’s narrative breaks away from the conventions of linear documentary and veers into fiction. In Le Chantier, he films dreamlike sequences of construction workers at their local cinemas, from the outskirts of Paris to Meknes in Morocco.  

“They don’t really have a voice and they don’t have power,” he explains. “For me, it’s like in the works of [French writer] Honoré de Balzac, who was interested in all social classes and who was able to give an imaginative presence to the working classes as well.”  

He continues: “Filming the construction workers going to the movies is quite beautiful; it’s a way of giving them a voice that isn’t just an interview or a voice-over.” 

Documentary tips to fiction

While most of Bron’s work remains rooted in documentary, there is often an overlap with other genres. Some films borrow the tension and pacing of a political thriller; others verge on experimental cinema. His trajectory is less linear than algorithmic: each new film builds on the foundations of the last, recombining elements into something new.

Bron (left) shooting “The Blocher Experience” in Christoph Blocher’s villa in Herrliberg. The documentary about one of the most controversial Swiss politicians premiered in Locarno in 2013. Keystone/Frenetic Films

“Le Génie Helvétique (Swiss genius, 2003) raised the question of power in the Swiss Parliament and the relationship between the economy, economic power, and political power. After that, I looked for a place to show how these abstract forces of capitalism operate in Cleveland versus Wall Street (2010).” Which then led to his interest in the rise of populism, explored in L’Expérience Blocher (The Blocher experience, 2013), which focused on the leader of the extreme-right Swiss People’s Party (SVP) Christoph Blocher. 

In that vein comes The Deal, a fiction series based on the 2015 nuclear negotiations between Iran and the United States held in Geneva. While The Deal carries the hallmarks of a sleek, binge-worthy series, it is also a logical extension of Bron’s interest in Swiss and international politics.  

“We are talking about events that took place in 2015, ten years ago. While writing, we were fully aware that the series reflected a world that had passed, particularly regarding the idea of multilateralism. We knew we were depicting a paradigm shift, the emergence of a new world, and we were already seeing some warning signs: Brexit, Trump’s ascent to power, and his unilateral tearing up of the 2015 agreement…”

A fast-paced political thriller, “The Deal” is a fictional series based on real multilateral negotiations on the Iranian nuclear program which took place in Geneva in 2015. Bande À Part Films / Les Films Pelléas / Gaumont Television

Bron reflects on his transition from documentary to fiction in the making of The Deal with humour. “In my view as a documentary filmmaker, as soon as there are more than three people, it freaks me out. And suddenly, I found myself with a team of 60!” Yet he loves the challenge noting the almost athletic habit of juggling multiple projects at once “There’s a bit of a rule: the more films you make, the more you want to make”.  

Bron’s curiosity and ambition remain undiminished for the future. “I am working on a new documentary project that picks up some elements from Le Génie Helvétique, but on a European scale. I have three or four projects in progress, but I don’t yet know which ones will actually come to fruition. It all depends on the circumstances.”

>> People in Switzerland and the European Union can stream The Deal on PlaySuisse hereExternal link.

>> Watch Jean-Stéphane Bron talking about the making of The Deal:

Edited by Virginie Mangin/ds