trying to remember

A moment of silence. On Sunday, November 13, Prime Minister Elizabeth Bourne commemorated the hundreds of victims of the terrorist attacks committed seven years ago in Paris and Saint-Denis. After the silence, it is useful if one wants to return to the terrible roar of this night of horrors through a series of works to read or see.

November 13 story

Documentary by the Naudet brothers, November 13, Fluctuat Nec MergiturReleased on Netflix in 2018, it fulfills that mission. This three-episode series, consisting of a chorus of nearly forty witnesses, victims and rescuers, policemen and politicians, mixing amateur and professional characters, is meticulous in its facts, intense in its emotions and humble. A document for history by zooming “humanity bubbles” – gestures of love, moments of solidarity – will help you get through this dark night.

Investigation

Few recent events have sparked so much creativity. hot », French culture does not always tend to be based on the history of the present. But two cases were able to do so by focusing on the investigation that followed the attacks.

♦ CellComics by Soren Seelow, Kévin Jackson and Nicolas Otero (BD Arena, 238 pp., €24.90)

Set in 2021, this comic breaks down the spiral that led to the attacks in Paris on November 13, 2015, and Brussels on March 22, 2016, with dark and surreal illustrations. The story of a race against time between the French and Belgian intelligence services and a group of terrorists piloted from Syria and led by Abdelhamid Abaaoud. This expert case follows a sequence of failures that allow the same cell to be hit twice.

♦ novemberFrench film by Cédric Jimenez (in theaters)

Action thriller specialist, director North Ferry takes the attack out of the frame and focuses his new film, which was a huge success in cinemas (2 million admissions), on the work of the police officers of the sub-terrorist department (Sdat) to find two terrorists. escape – whose Abdelhamid Abaaoud. If the film is content to neatly restore the concreteness of the investigation, the director, far from being afraid, manages to breathe rhythm and breath, especially thanks to the beautiful editing work.

Test

This year’s commemorations have particular resonance because they follow the historic trial, which ended on June 29 after ten months of hearings into the attacks. Two works return to him with words and drawings.

♦ V13Book by Emmanuel Carrère (POL, 368 pages, €22)

In nine months, Emmanuel Carrère wrote a column Obs this test was experienced as a passage on board the liner “V13” (Friday the 13th). It is this story that he presents in a book that regains the emotional power of audiences today.

♦ Sentencing on November 13Book by Noëlle Herrenschmidt, with Arthur Denouveaux and Antoine Garapon (La Martinière, 207 pp., €27.50)

Testing is both a setting and a gesture. Ceremony of punishments and postures of everyone in the courtroom, accused, witnesses, civilians. In this trial, which was held on November 13, there were people who spoke as straight as a stone. And these moving silhouettes came to the bar with words written on paper and clinging to the desk so as not to sink under the wave of grief. This is the whole richness of this precious book. To restore the words, but also thanks to the illustrations of the “watercolorist-reporter” Noëlle Herrenschmidt, all the pictures of this trial for history.

Time to mourn

♦ You can’t take my hateBook by Antoine Leiris (Paperback, 128 pp., €3.90)

Antoine Leiris, author of the infamous Facebook post, recounts life after the loss of his wife, who was killed at the Bataclan, in a poignant book titled You Will Not Be My Hate. We discover the man behind the slogan and then the extreme difficulty of rebuilding himself and “building a family.” Unfortunately, a clumsy and off-topic movie adaptation has just been released.

♦ AmandaA film by Michael Hers (Available on VOD and DVD)

Intimate mourning to explain collective tragedy. released in 2018, Amanda certainly the first film since the November 13 attack. Mikhaël Hers manages to accurately capture the atmosphere of Paris after the attacks with this tune, in which a young man finds himself guiding his 7-year-old niece after the sudden death of his sister.

♦ See Paris againFrench film by Alice Winocour (in theaters)

Another piece of fiction inspired by November 13th, this humble and sensitive film follows the rebuilding journey of a survivor played by Virginie Efira. Its director, Alice Winocour, defends her desire to show a community united by resilience.

♦ In therapySeries created by Éric Toledano and Olivier Nakache (available on DVD or Disney+)

Loosely inspired by the first season of the Israeli series In therapy, a highly successful 2021, explores the breakdown of French society after the 2015 attacks behind the closed doors of a psychoanalyst’s office. To reveal the defects, but also the inner resources of their patients, In therapy it celebrates the virtues of talking and listening to overcome trauma, whether intimate or collective. An ode to endurance.