"November", in theaters on October 5, looks back on the deadliest attack ever perpetrated on French soil, with 130 dead in one evening in Paris and Ile-de-France.

“A trauma of incredible violence” which makes this film “important”, judged Cédric Jimenez during a press conference on Monday, the day after the official screening in Cannes, where his feature film – out of competition – was greeted triumphantly.

Hesitant about the idea of ​​tackling this ultra-sensitive subject, the Marseillais let himself be convinced by Olivier Demangel's screenplay, which completely leaves the attacks themselves out of scope.

A counter-point of view which also reassured Sandrine Kiberlain, who admitted her "reluctance" at the start to accept the role of Héloïse, who heads the counter-terrorism sub-directorate of the judicial police, "in relation to the proximity of the facts ".

The screenwriter initiated the project in 2017, he explained on Monday, with the idea of ​​"telling the shock wave" which followed the tragedy, "this moment when public services mobilize so that society takes Well".

Result: an effective thriller, in total immersion with the police, which starts in the middle of the evening of November 13 and ends five days later, after the assault on Saint-Denis, where the terrorists are taking refuge.

Stressed phone calls, police custody and muscular searches follow one another at a steady pace.

Yawns and bloodshed at times betray the fatigue of the characters, under pressure to find the most wanted men in France before they commit other attacks.

"tunnel"

Like the police after the attacks, the characters of "November" are in a "tunnel", "at the service of the investigation" for five days: the film shows nothing of their private life or the feelings that run through them.

French director Cédric Jimenez speaks during the press conference for the film "November", during the 75th Cannes Film Festival on May 23, 2022 Stefano Rellandini AFP

The director wanted the characters not to share any intimacy with their own during this hunt, "because that's really what they lived 24 hours a day without interruption".

In the end, the only scenes where the emotion of the massacre that was November 13, 2015 emerges are those of the interrogation of the survivors in the hospital.

The team itself had to "put aside its emotions", he said, "for example when we replayed the video of President Hollande (during the assault on the Bataclan), it brought back things".

Cybersurveillance, the expertise of the police just a few months after the attack on Charlie Hebdo and the Hyper Cacher, and sophisticated technological tools are ultimately little compared to intuition, which allows the character of Inès (Anaïs Demoustier) to trust the key witness in the case, despite the implausibility of his statements.

Cédric Jimenez also reveals the frustration of false leads, the conflicts between intelligence and the police or the different methods between young and more experienced police officers.

After "BAC Nord" (presented at Cannes in 2021) on the police of Marseille (south), this is the second time that Jimenez has adopted the point of view of the police in a film.

"BAC Nord" had been a big success in theaters (2 million admissions) but had caused controversy, when a police union as well as right-wing and far-right politicians had "recovered" it to justify their security concerns , much to the chagrin of Cédric Jimenez.

More than six years after the events, another feature film presented at Cannes is dedicated to the tragedy of November 13, 2015, "Revoir Paris", by Alice Winocour, who adopts the point of view of the survivors.

© 2022 AFP