Trapped Like Rats?

Directed by

Philippe Thomine

Written by

Didier Desor

Produced by

Videoscop Université Nancy 2

Documentary, France, 2009, 52 min

The film focuses on a series of experiments conducted by Didier Desor, lecturer and researcher at Nancy-Université.

Groups of six rats have to dive and swim underwater to get some food. A role distrubution - remarkably constant from one group to another - appears: certain rats are brave enough to undergo the stressful ordeal of swimming underwater to bring back the food, whereas others never dive but steal the food from the swimmers on their return.

This fascinating experiment gives rise to a certain amount of fantasy with its obvious throw backs to human behaviour and can be easily (and often wrongly) interpreted in psychological, political or ideological terms. A major part of the film is thus devoted to this interpretation, developed in several stages just like the experiment itself.

Ultimately, the most immediate interpretation – that of competition – is called into question by another point of view, linked to the idea of cooperation.

Debate with :

• Philippe Thomine, director
• Didier Desor, professor of Behavioral Neuroscience, Nancy 2 University
• Jacqueline Ries, producer

Know more

• Website dédicated to this experiment (in french).