Building the Bastille

Building the Bastille | A<FESTIVAL 2026 dir. Leif Kaldor | Canada | 2021 | 76 min

Paris is preparing to celebrate the bicentennial of the French Revolution, and one of its symbols is to be the new opera in Bastille Square. A giant, anonymous architectural competition is underway. It affects more than 750 projects, and the jury is almost certain that the best of them was created by Richard Meier - one of the greatest stars of American architecture. When you open the envelope... there is silence. Instead of a legend, there is a name no one associates with: Carlos Ott. An unknown architect from Canada gets his hands on a flagship French project overnight. However, he quickly discovers the brutal truth: drawing a building is the simplest part of the task. Surviving political intrigues, a clash of gigantic ambitions and total chaos at the construction site - this is a completely different story.

“Building the Bastille” by Leif Kaldor reveals the backstage of the creation of one of the most spectacular architectural projects: the Opera Bastille. The film follows five years of design, Mitterrand's political clash with Jacques Chirak, attempts to stop investment, financial problems and the struggle to complete the giant undertaking on time. It is a story about architecture entangled in ambition, power and grand politics. This is a ruthless political-architectural thriller.

Screening as part of A<FESTIVAL 2026, co-organized with the Wrocław Film Foundation: MiastaMovie Festival of Films about the City and Architecture

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