
The Dark Side of the Champagne Industry
Champagne's glamor depends on tens of thousands of migrant grape pickers who arrive in France every harvest season, and this film follows the workers who say the price of that image is exploitation. Polish harvest workers describe relying on painkillers to keep working through the physical strain, a young Bulgarian says he was cheated out of his wages, and an Afghan laborer talks through the conditions in the fields. Trade unionist José Blanco has spent years campaigning against recruitment agencies he accuses of trafficking cheap labor from Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa into shacks and forest tents near the vineyards. Several subcontractors have already been convicted and jailed for human trafficking, yet the system persists season after season. Lawyer Benjamin Chauveaux, who represented victims in the largest human trafficking trial the Champagne region has seen, walks through the layered subcontracting arrangements that let major champagne houses profit while staying legally distant from the abuse. The film argues the brands' own role in the system still has not been properly investigated.