In the space of ten days, three channels will devote a special evening to incest and sexual violence against minors. This Sunday, M6 programs at 11:10 p.m. the edifying A silence so loud in which five victims, including Emmanuelle Béart who co-directed the documentary, testify. On October 1, France 2 rebroadcasts, at 9:10 p.m. Ticklesthe partly autobiographical film by Andréa Bescond then, at 10:55 p.m., Abused childhood, a documentary on the consequences of the actions of child molesters on their victims. The next day, October 2, TF1 will show Eyes wide closed, a TV film in which a grandmother, played by Muriel Robin, discovers that her son, played by Guillaume Labbé, is sexually abusing her grandson. This fiction will be followed by “ Don’t tell anyone”, their fight against incesta documentary following the investigation and trial of a man accused of raping his daughter.
This coincidence of programming is not a coincidence: the subject is in the news. This Thursday, the Independent Commission on Incest and Sexual Violence Against Children (Ciivise) produced an analysis of the 27,000 testimonies it received in the space of two years. “We also support the government campaign against sexual violence against children, the spots of which we broadcast on the air,” Florent Dumont, deputy director of antennas and programs at France Télévisions, tells us. This Friday, “It starts today” will also be devoted to this subject. The broadcast will be live, in the presence of Secretary of State Charlotte Caubel. »
“Move the lines”
He insists that these subjects have been “important” for the public service, “for a long time”, with “the challenge of moving the lines” so that this has “an impact on society”. Florent Dumont thus evokes the broadcast, in 2017, of Consolation, adaptation of the book by Flavie Flament “which sparked debate and had a concrete impact since it contributed to the extension of the statute of limitations for child rape. » He also cites the broadcast, in 2020, of the documentary My lips are sealedfollowed by 2.5 million people and in which Judge Edouard Durand spoke, who would be appointed, a year later, co-president of the Ciivise.
The magistrate appears, in this function, in A silence so loud. He sees in the documentary “a very important lever” to “make people understand” how urgent there is to act. While the number of child victims of incest in France is estimated at 160,000 (one in ten), Edouard Durand recalls that only 3% of complaints result in a conviction.
“Don’t be afraid to ask yourself the question”
“5.5 million people were sexually assaulted as children. It’s a huge social phenomenon, I don’t know why society doesn’t seem ready to confront the subject today,” wonders Guillaume Labbé. The actor, that 20 minutes met at the La Rochelle Fiction Festival, where Eyes wide closed was presented out of competition, argues that “people who work with children are not sufficiently trained on the subject. Of course, it is not necessarily because a child is sleeping poorly that he or she has been raped, but there are a set of signals that need to be seen, and one should not be afraid to ask the question. Currently, in the vast majority of cases, it is people outside the family who denounce [les faits d’inceste]. »
Muriel Robin also hopes for “an awareness” with this fiction, even if she recognizes that “it’s always a drop in the bucket”. She is convinced that the TV film can have “an awakening mission” and have the capacity to generate discussions within families: “The mistake would be to say to ourselves: “this cannot happen in our home””. The actress finds it “good” that several channels are tackling the subject almost at the same time. “The more those to whom it happened speak, the more those to whom it happened will speak,” she says.
“It’s not our place to be ashamed”
The mother of little Sarah, who testifies in A silence so loud, thinks the same thing. “I hope that on a societal and political level, everything will change. My daughter and I were afraid to speak up for years, but it’s not our place to be ashamed. »
The importance of the word being heard comes up a lot in the comments of the interlocutors of 20 minutes for this article. It still has to be able to be. “It is possible that the Ciivise will not be maintained,” worried Edouard Durand at a press conference. This would amount to saying to the victims: “We have heard you enough”. »
A silence so loud was screened Tuesday at the Ministry of Youth. Jonathan Curiel, deputy general director of programs for the M6 group declared to be the pride of the channel “to be able to broadcast this important documentary”. “TV has a social role to play and must mobilize the public,” he added. A political role that the French channels now seem ready to assume.