Cannes Film Festival: “L’Abandon” on the death of Samuel Paty, embarrassed us, and not for the screenplay

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Emmanuelle Bercot plays the principal of the college where Samuel Paty taught. The murdered history and geography professor is played by Antoine Reinartz.

When is it decent to adapt a story like that of Samuel Paty? Obviously, as soon as possible, if we stick to the timing chosen to unveil the first trailer for L’Abandon. The first images of the film on the eleven days which preceded the sordid assassination of the professor of history and geography were revealed at the beginning of March, only a few days after the verdict of the special assize court of appeal of Paris, which condemned several perpetrators of the campaign of hatred against Samuel Paty.

Officially, this temporality was motivated by the ambition not to interfere in the affair and the last trial linked to the assassination of the teacher. However, this illustrates what is wrong around L’Abandona film nevertheless brilliantly carried by Emmanuelle Bercot and Antoine Reinartz released in theaters on Wednesday May 13. Or the same day as its out-of-competition presentation at the Festival and Cannes.

Directed by Vincent Garenq, specialist in legal stories (Présumé Coupable, L’Enquête), this film about Samuel Paty scrupulously respects the unfolding of eleven days of rumors and digital excitement which led to his assassination by an Islamist terrorist in front of his establishment.

More than the last days of Samuel Paty, the film retraces those of all the protagonists of the college where the events took place. Starting from this famous moral and civic education course where he presented to his students – with all the necessary precautions – caricatures of Mohammed from Charlie Hebdo.

Shift into horror

The feature film also takes care to return to the source of the drama: the lie of a student, absent from this lesson, who will tell her parents that the Muslim students in the class have been stigmatized because of their religious faith and forced to leave the room by order of the professor. Which will be, from the start of the film and as in real life, denied by the students, Samuel Paty and the college administration. Afterwards, L’Abandon takes the time to represent the progressive anguish that will be born in Samuel Paty, trapped by the infernal machine launched on social networks by the father of this student. It is also the latter who will attract the attention of the killer on social networks. Which is also shown in the movie.

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The film takes the time to explain how a student, Bachira Saidi, began to wrongly accuse her teacher of having stigmatized Muslim students during a lesson.

But then, what’s really wrong with L’AbandonHAS ? It is certainly not its casting, or its production, both of which serve the tragic destiny of Samuel Paty. Even less so is its narration, which inexorably tightens the noose around this discreet but universally appreciated professor. We must also salute the modesty of the film when the time comes for the particularly violent murder of the professor.

Despite its undeniable qualities in helping to understand this shift into horror, the film faces a first problem: its title. The director explains that he echoes the “succession of abandonments, dysfunctions, cowardice or naivety» in the story of Samuel Paty. But with the exception of two or three teachers at the establishment and the indisputable bankruptcy of the intelligence services, he is in fact supported by his management, but also by several students and their parents, even those of Muslim faith who were initially hurt or cautious about his methods. Abandonment is not necessarily palpable.

A questionable approach

What’s really wrong with L’Abandonthese are the intentions that can be attributed to the initial project. In addition to questionable promotional timing, the intentions behind this project filmed in the greatest secrecy question the real ambitions of such an early film on the assassination of Samuel Paty. The first trailer was revealed without any release date. A rather rare fact, which illustrates the pressing desire to capitalize on the legal epilogue of the case to ensure the promotion of the film.

It should also be noted that L’Abandon is adapted from the book The Last Days of Samuel Patywritten by Stéphane Simon. Author of the book but also producer of the film via his production company Outside Film, Stéphane Simon is known for his work as a television producer, notably for Thierry Ardisson, and for having launched the webtv of Michel Onfray, philosopher today columnist on CNews. His production company Open Media Factory also stood out by working for Marine Le Pen and Valérie Pécresse during the 2022 presidential campaign. In his intriguing CV, Stéphane Simon also has a past as a news journalist and editor-in-chief of the magazine Interview before becoming a producer of fiction and documentaries.

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Samuel Paty, incarnated by Antoine Reinartz in « L’Abandon ».

Although the film is supervised by a sister of Samuel Paty and undeniably offers “Â tools for understanding“healthy on the events, as Antoine Reinartz points out on France Interit is difficult not to see a form of opportunism and embarrassing sensationalism in this express depiction of the last hours of Samuel Paty.

It is therefore a deep uneasiness that inhabits us once the screening of the film is over. Not because of its content, but everything that surrounds it. And this, even if L’Abandon respects the memory and professional values of Samuel Paty, in addition to perfectly explaining the mechanism of lying and the cascade of events which precipitated his death on October 16, 2020. As the production of the film explained, the idea behind this project was not to let the memory of Samuel Paty. A completely honorable mission. Using cinema − so quickly − to tell the story of one’s last days is undoubtedly a little less so.