In 2019, Until the Guard , Xavier Legrand's film received the César for best film. It depicted the story of a couple tearing each other apart. And whose children suffer the repercussions of divorce. Tuesday evening, at 8.50 p.m., France 5 does not offer us a fiction on this theme, but rather a poignant documentary, entitled Separation, children first . For 80 minutes, spectators follow the stories of three families, three couples who can no longer communicate. Each time, a judge, a mediator, or a person from the children's aid services tries to find a way out.
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"At the heart of procedures and in the strictest privacy of families"
The images in this documentary are extremely rare, which is the strength and the great success of the work of its director, Delphine Cinier, who had to work hard to get these doors opened. "I wanted to be at the heart of the procedures and in the strictest intimacy of families," she explains to the microphone of Europe 1. An exercise "quite difficult".
"It was necessary to gain the confidence of the judges. It was long hours of observations in their cabinets. And then, it was necessary to convince two parents who do not agree on anything, who do not even agree on the main thing, that is to say their children, to accept our camera and to accept it in a situation dangerous for them since they have absolutely no idea whether they will have custody of their children, or how it will happen. So we had to gain the trust of these people, "explains Delphine Cinier.
She also says she made the promise to be neutral, never to take sides. "It was necessary never to repeat to one what the other said to me. And to refuse to be instrumentalized by one of the parents", she notes. The despair of parents who have to face situations that have eluded them and where everything is exacerbated, is shown. As in this conversation between a family mediator and a father who can no longer see his children.
"It was an emotionally tough shoot"
The sequences are sometimes very moving and touched the film crew. "It was an emotionally tough shoot. We cried a lot. We sometimes had to leave the hearings because it was very difficult," said the director. "When we are outside, we realize doubly the violence of what these families are going through. We wonder when these people loved each other. They had children together, they got married. How do we get to be so hateful? ", She says.
Delphine Cinier retains the violence of seeing these families tear apart because "each parent taken separately is very touching. They have their reasons for feeling in conflict, for feeling judged". "In fact, they cannot calm down, they camp on their anger," she summarizes. "We can ask ourselves the question: when does justice have the means to put an end to this?"