Meet the team still cleaning up after World War I | Zone Rouge

Meet the team working tirelessly to clear the Zone Rouge in northeastern France from the deadly debris of the First World War.
Directed by Dominique van Olm
Producer: Darren Snowden
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‘We are a service responsible for removing danger.’
A century after the final shots of the First World War were fired, the nearly unfathomable scale of the conflict’s destruction still scars much of Europe, including northeast France, where some of the most intense and protracted fighting took place. Rusting munitions there pose a danger beyond just polluting the land and water - some grenades and shells are still capable of detonating if jostled by passersby. In this short documentary, the Canadian filmmaker Dominique van Olm captures the tireless efforts of the small team of démineurs tasked with safely removing First World War weapons from a stretch of France known as the Zone Rouge - a series of areas so heavily bombarded during the war that, at its end, they were deemed unfit for human habitation. With this unique and dangerous line of work as her centerpiece, van Olm not only highlights the longterm devastation of armed conflict, but also crafts a portrait of mission-based camaraderie that inverts the traditional war film.

[@IGuessIDoThings]

It’s kinda surreal how insane countries were to just completely annihilate each other that people are still dealing with it 100 years later

[@johnciummo3299]

My wife and I have made 7 trips to the Western Front. The area around Verdun is haunting. You can go off trail and within a few yards see the unexploded shells laying just above the surface. Every years a few french farmers are killed when their tractors run over one of these shells. Tragic!

[@NathanCatherall]

It’s just such a tragedy that the effects of a conflict that ended well over 100 years ago are still claiming innocent lives. I have the greatest respect for the people who do this work. Being from Great Britain, I had relatives who fought in both world wars. And with global tensions rising, I hope that people can look back upon the mistakes of the past and never allow such a hideous event to occur again.

[@simonestreeter1518]

It ended well, did it? It was utterly unnecessary in the first place, and Britain played a shameful part in getting it started. I am sorry for the average British civilian who was duped into thinking it was crucial, which includes my great-grandfather who was a prisoner of war in France. I agree, a hideous event, and one seemingly likely to be starting again, by the same interests that have arranged the last two. I hope people will finally speak out against the carnage in Ukraine, and push their leaders for peace.

[@catey62]

They wont, unfortunately. as human beings we are destined to destroy each other. and as a 61 year old woman, it scares me now what is going on in the world right now.

[@dougtheviking6503]

Nope, no one learns at least countries that have politicians.

[@charlesburgoyne-probyn6044]

All the people who cheer on the war in Ukraine should take note

[@darlingps]

For ESL readers: "well over" is an English expression meaning "much longer than"

[@Lucale100]

großen respekt für ihre arbeit

[@jannisares]

They have their work cut out for them. I pray for their safety.

[@louisimission2153]

Thanks for sharing. Important to whitness the consequences of war. With highest hopes for the saftey of the brave men doing this work. Thank You.

[@simonestreeter1518]

Ces vieillards sont des vrais hommes. J'ai les larmes aux yeux.

[@gubbothehuggo2771]

"It hasn't changed its purpose. It is absolutely honest." That's what's so easy to forget

[@limabravo6065]

When i worked at Sandia we were dismantling a pretty old weapon. Apparently there had been some kind of fault in the manufacture of the high explosives that surround nuclear pit that gets squished to create the runaway chain reaction etc etc... well the explosive lenses are made of two types of H.E. with one having a slightly faster rate of detonation, and it was this faster detonating explosive that had been made from a bad batch of boom. If youve ever seen the show LOST when they find the ship in the jungle with the old dynamite that had "sweated" and become unstable. Thats what we were dealing with, not to the extreme as seen in the show but ya know Nuke. Now for the time that weapon series was built they were amoung the most advanced bits of tech humanity had ever built and still something like that happened. So i cant imagine how utterly unstable the compounds in those shells are after 100 years of weathering. Hats off to you lads and your government should be held to account for not providing somewhere to dispose of those damn things, rather than keeping them in storage and just waiting for someone else to die

[@thefriedrice4489]

Amazing! Such a dangerous and honorable job, thank you for what they do

[@moosehead482]

In a sad sort of way, I find this utterly fascinating. WW1 is still so misunderstood...

[@kevinconrad6156]

Heroes.

[@smithy280663]

amazing........these people do amazing work.

[@SandervkHistory]

Absolutely amazing video!

[@jeffyoung60]

Job security for the next two centuries? No worries about recessions, depressions, job layoffs, everything. Insane.

[@Blarg5290]

I'm surprised that they simply pull shells out of the ground by hand like that at 1:27 without knowing if it is unstable or not. Seems like those things could detonate just from being moved.

[@hfl7393]

What do they do with the collected shells?

[@FacadeWitch]

The last time someone touched that piece of ordinance was over 100 years ago when a soldier loaded it into an artillery piece, crazy to think.

[@NIKOLASAV1]

Amazing and very poignant documentary.

[@jannisares]

I hate war.

[@BERNTRR]

Can someone explain to me why he just throws it around when taking it out, but they then treat them with such care after? He even lost 2 people while they were reorganizing crates, probably very carefully, how come he lobs them around in the first clips we see om him removing shells?

[@YourFaceisPretty]

I'm also quite curious. Is it something to do with them being wet? I didn't think that made them necessarily inert, but I don't know anything. Or does he know something about those particular kinds of shells? Jeez, what a job!

[@BERNTRR]

@@YourFaceisPretty right

[@neilmckay8649]

Vietnam must be worse, the jungle terrain, power and complexity of the ordinance, etc.

[@carcher3279]

And Laos and Cambodia. Same thing there.