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Simone Weil (1909-1943), who became a factory worker and a believer, and went to fight in the Spanish Civil War, was a philosopher who strove constantly to align her actions with her thoughts, bridging politics and mysticism. This is the portrait of an impassioned woman, who was born 100 years ago.

This extremely well documented biography, based on extensive family archives, portrays Simone Weil as an independent woman with a brilliant mind.

Simone Weil was born in Paris in 1909 into a bourgeois, Jewish family. She became socially committed and a peace activist. She obtained her Agrégation diploma of philosophy in 1930. It was there that she enrolled in the "CGT Unifiée" union, and gave her support to a movement for the unemployed, with whom she shared her wages.

She published several articles in "La Révolution Prolétarienne" and "La Critique Sociale". She then chose to take up a job as a factory worker at Alstom in early 1935. The following summer, while on holiday in Portugal, Weil experienced a Christian revelation. Without ever actually converting to Christianity, the young worker / philosopher developed a "spiritual materialism", which gave her ideas concrete expression.

She was suffering from tuberculosis, and, refusing to feed herself and have treatment, she died in August 1943 at Ashford Sanatorium.

Throughout her short life, Simone Weil wrote texts that recounted her experiences and thoughts - "The Need for Roots", "Gravity and Grace", "Oppression and Liberty", "The Working Condition" and "Waiting for God". The works express Weil's profound compassion for the suffering and sacrifices of her fellowmen.