After 2 years of work, Mélissa Theuriau reveals her doc on child protection

INTERVIEW

Each year, 300,000 children are entrusted to social assistance for children. Most are found in traditional structures, such as hostels or host families, but others - much less numerous - are accommodated in more specific places, also rarer: houses where they are very supervised. This is the case for a few hundred adolescents, whose behavioral disorders are serious. Children who are interested in a documentary broadcast Wednesday evening, at 10:45 p.m., on France 2:

, written and directed by Ketty Rios Palma and produced by Mélissa Theuriau, used to the theme of childhood.

The camera follows five teenagers, aged 10 to 18, with difficult journeys, and often in conflict with the educators of this center in Ivry-sur-Seine, which looks like a family lodge. With one concern: to avoid any voyeurism. "The director had the idea of ​​this process which I find very interesting which is the tale", indicates Wednesday, at the microphone of

on Europe 1, Mélissa Theuriau.

"The children met regularly to talk about a fictional character they had invented. It was a way of not questioning them in front of the camera to make them talk about their often difficult story," explains the producer.

"By creating a character, they put a lot of themselves into it. We see it in the course of the film, this character becomes what they would like to become, he gives us intimate and precious elements to know them."

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Two years of work

The common thread of this story, this imaginary character serves to show that these children, aware of their difficulties, first of all aspire to change. "To arrive at these moments of authenticity, it was nevertheless very strong", reports Mélissa Theuriau. "It is moving to attend these exchanges". In addition, the documentary contains very few scenes of conflict or violence, anxious to focus first on "the personal victories" of these young people in search of integration.

The team spent two years making this film, and six months observing these young people before turning on the cameras.

One way to get them used to the presence of journalists, and thus to prevent them from being tempted to stage themselves in front of the objectives.

"There are very authentic moments, when we feel that the children are no longer in a filming process at all", points out Mélissa Theuriau.

"Do not take the viewer's hand"

Another peculiarity of

, the absence of voiceover. The spectator is left, as much as possible, to his own observation, and therefore to his own judgment. "In everything I can do around child protection, I am always reluctant to comment," explains our guest. "I try to convince the broadcasters, who until then follow me, of the need not to take the viewer's hand. I find that even with a neutral comment, we tend to think in a way or a other, ”she concludes.