An exfiltration from Japan worthy of a James Bond or an Ethan Hunt. On December 29, 2019, Carlos Ghosn fled the Land of the Rising Sun by private jet in a trunk. An escape documented by the story given by the ex-boss of Renault-Nissan at the BBCAt microphone of Léa Salamé, through books or documentaries. On October 17, the incredible replaces the “zany” with comic strips Escape Ghosn. A graphic novel published by a Lebanese publishing house, Samirwhere a little monk with the face of Carlos Ghosn regularly comes to try to calm him down, to diminish his pride, or to remind him of certain truths.
But why did Carlos Ghosn accept this project when he refused to respond to the Netflix documentary? The escapee: The strange Ghosn affair. “For a very simple reason,” he responds to 20 minutes via video from Lebanon, when the Netflix team introduced themselves to me, I asked them: “What is the plan? What were they going to talk about?” I wasn’t asking how they were going to talk about it but what they were going to talk about. They refused to share their plan. I wasn’t going to be interviewed on sensitive topics without knowing that in Part I we would talk about this, in Part II that. So I refused. For the comic strip, they told me that their plan was to escape. They were going to do it in a humorous way, present me in a caricature way. And I am, I am represented smaller than I am, bigger than I am, more nervous than I am. But what seemed important to me was how the events unfolded. »
“An uncompromising look”
In interviews conducted by Anthony Samrani, editor-in-chief of The Orient-The Daythe former number 1 of Renault-Nissan revealed “his feelings in the box”, “particular incidents” during the journey: the updating of the phone of a member of his exfiltration team between Tokyo and Osaka raised fears that the mission would fail, as did the $10,000 tip to the manager of the premium gate from Osaka airport, an amount subsequently refused by the latter when checking the trunk. “My contribution was to answer a certain number of questions so that the reader had the story, told in their own way, but as accurately as possible, without anything inaccurate or omitted. And she stopped there. » And if, screenwriter Michèle Standjofski added some comic elements, “in absolute terms, the zaniness of the situation is so strong and real that we didn’t need to go very far to accentuate the comedy”, believes Marwan Abdo-Hanna, the comic’s editor.
This is why Carlos Ghosn did not ask for director’s cut even when, in the jet, we see him sticking needles into the voodoo dolls of those who, according to him, betrayed him. “There was no doll, no needle,” smiles Carlos Ghosn. They are free to add humorous things. That’s not embarassing. » He adds: “I’m a comic book reader. And a comic book is caricatured, it aims to entertain the reader, to offer a moment of lightness. I knew the character descriptions were going to be distorted, the dialogue based on real events but humorous. »
Escape Ghosn is therefore neither a hagiography nor a pamphlet. “Our objective was to take an uncompromising and rather mocking look at this affair, him and the situation,” explains Marwan Abdo-Hanna. We tried to set up a situational comedy, to play with words, with his character. We offer a fairly complete psychological portrait of the man. » And in the end, Carlos Ghosn “laughed when they sent me the first copy. I looked at him with amusement. » We must admit that after reading the comic book, we wait for the film adaptation. “There are more than two projects in progress,” reveals the businessman. Actors were requested including the American actor Tony Shalloub. ” ” Who ? », you ask yourself like Carlos Ghosn? The actor of the confidential, but appreciated by purists, series Monk.
“Escape Ghosn” by Michèle Standjofski and Mohamad Kraytem, published by Samir. 20 euros. Released October 17.