Mother, Don’t Put Me to Sleep: The Heartbreaking Story Behind the TV Movie

Tonight, France 2 is hitting hard on Maman’s show Don’t Sleep. An exciting TV movie about the descent into hell and the tragic fate of an 18-year-old teenager.

Directed by Sylvie Testud, Mother, Don’t Put Me to Sleep tells the story of Juliet (Gwendolyn Hammons) and her son Joseph (Nemo Schiffman). As the young man’s profound weakness overwhelms him, this mother discovers that he is sinking into a destructive addiction to psychotropic drugs.

Although powerless in the face of the situation, Juliet remains determined to get her son out of this addiction. He then engages in a battle both painful and brutal without giving up on saving her.

Did you know that there is a real story behind this exciting tale?

The shocking true story behind the TV movie

Mama Don’t Put Me to Sleep is based on a true story by Juliet Boudry.

In a fabulous book of the same name, Juliette Boudreau in 2018 recounted the struggle to save her son Joseph, who sadly died at the age of 18 from an overdose of opioids and benzodiazepines.

In her story, this mother described months of helplessness and sounded a real warning about youth addiction to these drugs. The opportunity also denounced the dysfunction of health services in the face of these increasingly widespread legal drugs.

The desire was confirmed by Gwendolyn Hamon at a press conference organized around the film during the La Rochelle Art Festival. “For Juliet, the book and the film are a way to bring Joseph back to life, but also to feel that her son’s death will not be in vain. He really has a feeling that his death could save many children and help parents who don’t understand.“

Of course, Juliet Boudry worked on the script with the film crew. If certain aspects were changed for the needs of the television adaptation, Mother, Don’t Sleep Me, is very faithful to its story.

According to one of the film’s screenwriters, Natalie Hugon, “Not all elements of family cooking are in the book. The strongest elements are concrete elements. The healing, the rape story… not fictional at all. “.

and add, ” Everything that makes up the family structure and how the family overcomes it is fictional. We try to find small moments of grace to tell you how problems arise. Juliet completely accepted. From the moment he wanted to make this film, he also wanted to broadcast it. Talk about this problem, make it visible, raise awareness. Therefore, he completely abandoned himself to fiction. He gave us the essence of the emotion he was able to feel. ”

Given the issues surrounding this important topic, France 2 chose to schedule the debate after the broadcast of the televised film. The second part of the evening, hosted by Julian Bougier, will raise public awareness of the silent suffering of drug-addicted adults, but also the turmoil of their loved ones who are troubled by such situations.