A scene unfortunately too banal! Three student friends – Lila, Soso and Rebecca – are whistled by a group of guys as they come out of the pool. “When a guy annoys me, I take a picture of him,” explains Lila, pulling out her smartphone. She then balances the shot on @LesSiffleurs, an Instagram account that she has specially created to pin the intruders.
On the occasion of International Women’s Rights Day, France 2 is broadcasting this Wednesday at 9:10 p.m. The Whistlersa two-part miniseries, carried by Nadia Farès and Charles Berling, which denounces the street harassment suffered by women.
Why this thriller written and directed by Nathalie Marchak (By Instinct), the second half of which is scheduled for March 15 and already available in full on france.tv, is of public utility?
On the way back from the pool, Lila (Ludmilla Makowski, seen in The Voice and in Lupine), now alone and helmet screwed on the ears, is caught by three lads in the car. “Hey panther! Are you sucking me? », launches one of them.
As she prepares to take a new photo, the situation degenerates. One of the three men gets out of the car, tackles her against a railing and threatens to rape her. The unexpected arrival of a police car scares the three men away.
Lila manages to photograph the license plate of the car and goes to the nearest police station to file a complaint. She gets snubbed by the police officer at reception. Even Captain Marianne Kacem (Nadia Farès) believes that the student has looked for it, unaware of walking alone in the streets in a miniskirt.
Many suspects
Lila takes refuge with her lifelong friend, Soso (Marion Delage), where she suffers the libidinous looks and gestures of her father (Charles Berling). Later that evening, while enjoying karaoke with Soso and Rebecca (Sophie Breyer), Lila is sexually assaulted in the establishment’s bathroom by a drunk customer.
The next day, the student’s scooter is found damaged and her dress stained with blood in the trash can next door… The police are now forced to take things seriously. With this Insta account where Lila posted photos of those who harassed her in the street, that is to say if the suspects are numerous!
Under cover of an effective thriller, The Whistlers points to a real societal problem: in France, more than eight out of ten women (81%) have already been victims of sexual harassment in public places, according to an Ipsos survey carried out in 2020.
The right not to be bothered
Furthermore, this fiction skillfully confronts the generation of women who did not question being bothered with the one who claims the right not to be. By staging this clash of generations, the miniseries feeds reflection on sexual and gender-based violence in both the public and private spheres.
Cyberbullying, postpartum depression, consent, intra-family violence… If the plot is sometimes scattered to its disadvantage, each character, from the police captain to the internalized misogyny played by Nadia Farès to the troubled character camped by Charles Berling, is put face to face with its responsibilities and must examine its conscience. A reflection that opens the way to the deconstruction of the patriarchal patterns of our society.