In 2014, Benji Spano was a 27 year old man living in Roubaix, a working class town in the north of France.

And he was at his wits end.

He'd lost his job in the financial crash of 2008, and since then, he'd gone from gig to gig trying to earn a living.

I wanted to have a real job and have a family and a family. And I wanted to have time to do things I like, but I was frustrated.

I worked a lot, but I won a lot of money, and I didn't have time for myself.

Benji lived with his girlfriend Marie. They were both unemployed, but they knew what they wanted.

A home, steady and meaningful jobs, and a bit of time to spare. Yet none of that seemed within reach.

I had the impression that a future was impossible.

Benji wanted to work hard, if it could lead to happiness. But to him, there was something broken about a system that asked people to work hard without the promise of long term security.

At every family gathering, in every conversation with friends, he'd ask, is there a different way to live?

I wanted to defend my ideas and values, like the respect of the environment and solidarity.

I wanted to change things. When I talk about that, people responded to me, but the economic system is social and like that.

What do you want to do?

One evening, Benji and Marie had a friend over. Julie.

That night, like he so often did, Benji wondered if there was a way to live a more meaningful life.

And that's when Julie asked Benji, have you ever heard of Notre Dame de l'Onde?

Julie, we talked about a place in the West of France. It was a village that called Notre Dame de l'Onde.

People there tried to create a new economic and social system.

Julie described the community to Benji and Marie as a sort of experimental utopia that had morphed into a self-sufficient and self-managed society.

Benji and Marie were intrigued, so they asked Julie to take them to Notre Dame de l'Onde just to check it out.

But what they would find there would revolutionize their lives.

Marie and I, we are going to discover this community. We want to see if another life was possible.

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