Paris (AFP)

Christophe Ruggia, accused by the actress Adèle Haenel of "touching" and "harassment", is a filmmaker little known to the general public who has demonstrated especially in recent years by its commitment to refugees and undocumented migrants .

In 2015, he is with Catherine Corsini, Pascale Ferran, and Romain Goupil at the origin of the "call of Calais" bringing together 800 artists and intellectuals. He also mobilized the same year for Syrian families who camped at the door of Saint-Ouen. And in 2016, he signed a petition of filmmakers indignant about the situation of Roma in Montreuil.

At the age of 54, Ruggia has directed three feature films, including "Les Diables" (2002), in which 13-year-old Adèle plays an autistic girl who can not bear to be touched and who abandons her brother at birth, fugues without stopping to find his parents.

It is during the filming of this film that the actress, now 30 years old, said she suffered "permanent sexual harassment", repeated "touching" and "forced kisses on the neck" by the director. , who denies the facts but who recognized Wednesday the "mistake" of having played "pygmalions".

Son of a Breton woman and a Blackfoot father who accidentally dies during a trip to Algeria when he was only seven years old, Christophe Ruggia was born on January 7, 1965 in Rueil-Malmaison, in the suburbs of Paris. , before growing in the Marseille region.

Graduate of the Free Conservatory of French Cinema, he shot several short films including "Sovè l'anmou" (1991) as part of the campaign against AIDS in the Caribbean.

In 1988, he founded a production company, cristal inn production, with which he produced various short films but was put out of business in 1994.

He met success with his first feature film "Le Gone du Chaâba" (1997), an adaptation of the autobiographical novel by Azouz Begag, a researcher who later became a minister.

The film addresses the issue of immigrants and xenophobia with the story of a boy who fled with his family poverty and war in Algeria and who grew up in a shanty town in the suburbs of Lyon in 1963.

His two other feature films, "The Devils" and "In Turmoil" (2011), with Yvan Attal and Mathilde Seigner will not experience the same success of "Gone Chaâba".

The Society of Film Directors, a professional association of some 300 members, had on Monday struck off Christophe Ruggia, who was several times the co-president or vice-president between 2003 and 2019.

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