An old woman, her hair wispy, a big pustule on her nose, her back bent double. A broom in one hand and a black cat in the other, she overflows with evil ideas and concocts the most infamous potions. This is what we generally imagine when we evoke the figure of the witch. So many archetypes and caricatural traits that you will not see in the new French fiction of France 2, entitled daughters of firebroadcast from this Monday at 9:10 p.m.
The witches are however central there, or more precisely the hunts of which they were victims during the history. The plot of this series of six 52-minute episodes takes place in 1609 in the Basque Country, in a family of three sisters. There is Jeannette, the eldest, mother and dyer. Catherine, a young widow with a strong character, at the head of a company of sailors. Then Morguy, the youngest, carefree and free as the air. Three women from a line of healers whose destinies will change because of a man: Pierre de Lancre, a demonologist commissioned by King Henry IV to judge and condemn “heretics”.
Freely inspired by real events, the story recounts the persecution suffered by dozens of Basques, wrongly accused of responding to the demon’s orders. Mixed with a touch of ecofeminism, the series dismantles the myth of the ugly witch while addressing very contemporary issues.
“We wanted to show her as a woman of her time”
In her small village, Gratianne, the mother of these three sisters, holds a special place. This matriarch embodied by Angela Molina (That Obscure Object of Desire, broken hugs), is a “sorgine” (pronounced “chorguine”), a witch in Basque. Connected to the forces of nature, she talks to the bees who guide her and reveal bits of the future. She also knows the power of plants and plays a fundamental role in her community: that of caring for the sick or supporting pregnant women. “In the series, we wanted to show her as a woman in her time but above all as a female doctor, explains director Magaly Richard-Serrano. The desire was to go behind the cliché of the witch, to show that they were osteopaths, naturopaths, healers. »
And that is the heart of this series: to rehabilitate these women judged as criminals then, for some, burned alive on the grounds of their alleged magical powers. 110,000 witchcraft trials were initiated between 1430 and 1630, nearly half of which ended in a death sentence, recalled an article from France Inter in 2018.
“When we started to dig into the stories of witch hunts, what interested us was to show a historical moment which had been a shift in many questions: those of medicinal and gynecological knowledge but also of the relationship with nature” , relates Maïté Sonnet, co-screenwriter of the series. This moment is that of the beginnings of modern science during the Renaissance, which discredits in the same movement the medicinal knowledge around nature and plants. The healer then becomes a witch, accused of all ills, societal or sanitary.
By praising its power, the series also advocates a certain return to nature and adorns itself with a hint of ecofeminism. “We also wanted to tell that by killing these women, we lost this connection which was very instinctive and very alive with what surrounded them”, adds Giulia Volli, the second screenwriter of the project.
“She accumulates a lot of freedoms which make her a figure to be beaten”
In daughters of fire, it is the demonologist Pierre de Lancre – played by actor Bruno Debrandt – who persecutes Gratianne and her daughters. This character is inspired by a judge who really existed, and who was commissioned by King Henry IV in the Basque Country to hunt witches there. He made numerous arrests and organized mock trials. Facts that Pierre de Lancre shared at the time in his book Table of inconstancy of evil angels and demons, some quotes from which feed the dialogues of the series and give their titles to the six episodes. “Witches only eat apples”, we hear in the first, “the bodies of magicians are always imperfect”, we read in the second.
Mixture of real facts and fictional elements, daughters of fire opens new horizons for France 2. “This allowed us to renew the historical series, to introduce a pinch of fantasy, but also to tell very deeply the story of these women and the contemporary resonances of this era which seems distant” , underlines Carole Le Berre, adviser of programs at France Télévisions. Through these women who are fighting for their survival and their freedoms, this also allows the channel to deal with very current issues.
Thus, the characters of the three sisters were “constructed as each having a freedom or a ‘witch’ knowledge”, underlines the screenwriter Maïté Sonnet. Freedoms and rights that will be gradually taken away from them by human law. Catherine, played by Lizzie Brocheré, lives alone and without a husband. She owns her own business and manages men. “She accumulates a lot of freedoms which make her a figure to be beaten”, notes Maïté Sonnet. As for Morguy, interpreted by Zoé Adjani, her non-conformist and her sexual freedom make her a marginal. Manipulated by Pierre de Lancre, this character also questions toxic relationships and the phenomenon of influence.
“The witch is a figure who can help us a lot”
Ecofeminism, patriarchal violence, women’s rights… We should also note a predominantly female team, from production to direction, including casting. daughters of fire is undeniably marked by the #MeToo movement and questions the place of women in fiction and our society. The series is reminiscent to a lesser extent of the film Portrait of the girl on fire by Céline Sciamma or the work of Mona Chollet and her resounding book Witches, the undefeated power of women in 2018. The author deciphered the myth of the witch through history and how it was rooted in our contemporary society.
“When I was little, feminism wasn’t a word, nobody talked about it anymore. Just like ecology, notes Maïté Sonnet. These subjects affect us all. Our imaginations as screenwriters, directors, artists, researchers, are crossed by these questions and we therefore arrive at the same images. It is important to recognize why a figure suddenly returns to our imaginations and helps us to think about today’s world. The witch is a figure who can help us a lot, to whom we can cling when things are not going too well and when things are regressing. »