Relatives and defenders of victims of feminicide. - Bangumi

  • The documentary Feminicides  explores five emblematic cases of women killed by their spouses or ex-spouses.
  • "Each of the cases chosen tells a different story about feminicide," explains author and director, Lorraine de Foucher , to  20 Minutes .

The documentary is soberly titled Feminicides . It explores five emblematic cases of women killed by their spouses or ex-spouses. Produced by Bangumi and the newspaper Le Monde , with the voice of actress Laetitia Casta, it will be broadcast this Tuesday at 9:05 p.m. on France 2, during a special evening presented by Julian Bugier. A debate will follow the film, with in particular the Secretary of State for Gender Equality Marlène Schiappa, the former magistrate Luc Frémiot and relatives of the victims. 20 Minutes  interviewed the author and co-director of the film, Lorraine de Foucher.

What led you to make this film?

My interest in the subject dates from 2017. It is at this time that we find the first reviews around the phenomenon: I think of the work of the journalist Titiou Lecoq in Liberation , for example. I then worked in 2018 with Alexia Delbreil, forensic scientist at the Poitiers University Hospital, who worked on 42 conjugal homicides. Then there was the project to create an investigative cell in the newspaper Le Monde  : for a year, we explored all these murders, with the idea of ​​looking for their commonalities. This collective work made it possible to bring out the criminal scheme which was already beginning to emerge in the previous works that we had read.

Why did you choose these five cases?

We worked on the corpus of 2018 and 2019, that is to say nearly 150 cases, and we have already been towards cases where people agreed to speak to us. These are cases that have taken place very recently, we are dealing with traumatized people, and I salute the courage of these people who agree to tell this story to people they have never seen. And also the idea was also to go towards stories that embody different facets of the phenomenon. Each of the selected cases tells a different side of feminicide. Laëtitia Schmitt opens the film, because it is an archetypal feminicide which allows us to understand all the control that is taking place. This is the story of nail polish: one day Laetitia arrives with nail polish at the office, and says "oh" and enters a state of panic. Marjorie, her best friend and coworker, says "I don't understand, that's okay", and then Laetitia lets go "Julien doesn't want me to polish at work, I absolutely have to take it off" . It sounds trivial like that ... Me, that's when I understood the feminicide character of this murder. It is a man who kills his wife but it is an attack on women: this varnish embodies the possession of the body and the fact that it is not sovereign in its physical appearance.

And the other stories?

That of Sylvia Bouchet recounts the idea of ​​the crime of annihilation. It is thrown over a dam. And she tells the loopholes of justice: she dies the day he gets out of court. Hélène Bizieux are those of the police. For Marie-Alice Dibon what we found interesting, it was the grip mechanism and because it undermines the cliché that would like that feminicide only happens in certain social circles, because she is a doctor of pharmacy , and she is very aware of feminist themes. She posts on her Facebook wall the count of feminicides. She is vigilant with her friends. It is a kind of control that connects to emotion. Finally Anna Galajyan is helped and supported by the local fabric - she goes to a home, she passes her license. She has the whole chain of protection and yet she dies anyway, because as long as nothing is done for the perpetrators, we cannot prevent feminicides from occurring.

Is the lack of care for perpetrators of violence the main blind spot in France?

It is not the only one, but it is a major blind spot. There is still this idea that feminicides are a woman's business, when it is a social phenomenon. Of course we must take care of the victims, this is fundamental, but we must not do that. We need a stronger judicial and police response, and also care. In Canada, there are men's support groups that manage difficult breakdowns. In France, we would find it almost funny, to know that men meet in a room to talk about their painful breakup. But it's not funny, and it's normal that a break is difficult. And remember that men can also be victims of male domination.

We see a form of pattern emerging in these feminicides. What are the main stages, the signs that make it possible to recognize the act?

There are damage to the body and physical appearance: size of the skirt, nail polish, makeup. With this idea that the woman must remain an object for her companion and not for the outside. There are also control strategies. The woman cannot say what she wants, nor speak to whom she wants. She is isolated. Laeticia no longer has the right to speak to Marjorie, because it counterbalances Julien's power. We saw attackers put up phone tracking apps. It's a big red light. An American researcher, Evan Stark, has theorized what he calls lethality factors, and explains that control is more important than beating. In France, we are still on an incidental reading: when a file arrives at a police station, the indicator with which they measure, it is the ITT (total temporary incapacity). That is to say the size of the wounds, bruises, and the disabilities generated. But ITT does not measure control. Confiscating car keys, peeling the laptop, asking for reports is not physical violence, but it is serious enough. And you have to be very vigilant during periods of rupture, it is very documented, these are red areas.

Forest, deserted roads, family meals ... We see a lot of calm images in this film. What is the desired effect?

All the image production, it was my co-director Jérémy Frey who did it. There was an issue of distance: not being too close, not too far. We wanted to relate the murders as they really were, without generating fear so that the prevention message that we are trying to get across does not become inaudible. These fairly calm images allow breathing forms in the idea of ​​accompanying the viewer in the film, because it is a subject that can be very hard.

We have talked a lot about domestic violence during this confinement. Would you have made the same film after this period?

I did a report with the emergency police at Clichy during the confinement, I saw statistics appear which I found significant. I have seen a decrease in domestic violence complaints of 20% but an increase on the police side, in the field, of 70%. It showed that the women were trapped at home. But the number of feminicides dropped a little during confinement. Why ? Because it is the intention of separation that triggers them. On the other hand, the massive increase in interventions during confinement is far from reassuring, and many prosecutors have told me that they fear a decline in this subject with the pandemic. And it is a shame, because it is a fundamental issue more than ever.

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  • France 2
  • Violence against women
  • Kind
  • Domestic violence
  • Femicide
  • Television
  • Feminism