“No one knows him!” : What terrifying true story, unknown in France, inspired Un silence, the new film by Daniel Ott?

There is a story almost unknown in France: it is in the heart of Un Silence! Maybe when you leave the session, you’ll be interested in the news that inspired Joachim Lafosse’s film, which was released on Wednesday.

The name of this case? The case of Hisel, in this case the lawyer played by Daniel Ott in the film, without directly adapting the news. Here his name is François Schaar.

Warning, the following contains spoilers for the twists and turns of the film:

Spoiler:
Victor Hisel, a former attorney for the families of Marc Dutroux’s victims, was indicted in 2007 for possession of child pornography. He was sentenced to 10 months in prison. Another peculiarity of this case: Hisel’s son, Romain, stabbed his father several times in 2009 and seriously injured him. He could not bear that his father, who was a symbol of the fight against sexual violence in Belgium, himself had pedophilic tendencies.

And the first thing that comes up when we wonder about the film is: why do we not know or hardly know this story in France? You only have to do a quick search to see that relatively few articles appear on this topic in France. However, this case is directly related to the Dutro case, which was widely reported in France!

We have the opportunity to speak with Joachim Lafosse to discuss this matter with him. He immediately answers us:No one knows him!“And in fact we are told that this case is well known in Belgium, but not at all in France.

So much so that the French audience could tell themselves that it was unthinkable outside of fiction. “The viewer must accept that this is possible“, answers Joachim Lafosse, who is fascinated by the theme of the film.

“There is one thing that I also found very interesting and the reason why I got into writing fiction. Basically, the Hisel case is kind of a summary of what’s been going on since the Dutroux case, so about 30 years..”

and added: “30 years ago, we all took to the streets in Belgium to say never again. No more lone predators, no more Marc Dutro. But after 30 years, we begin to question what is happening with our actions, what is happening in our homes, in our families, our behavior towards the female gender, what it creates. We’ve gone from werewolves to vivid introspection and a demand for vigilance.“

Create fiction!

If Joachim Lafosse takes real history as a trigger for his writing, he departs from it and takes it as a source of inspiration. “I write fiction. Journalistic objectivity is a democratic tool that I am not against, which is great, which feeds me, but it is not my business. My work is character and fiction.“

He follows: “For this writing, I absolutely refuse to meet the heroes of the business from which I draw inspiration. I never met Genevieve Lhermitte, the mother who inspired me to lose my mind. I have never met the characters in the Zoo Ark case. And also, it’s their way of honoring them by saying it’s fiction. I would be crazy to tell you that I have the truth about the things I wrote about. There is no way. These movies are also about me. I have invested as much in my life as I have read in the newspapers.”

In the press kit, he adds: “Reality is always a more or less direct source of inspiration. But since this is a work of fiction and clearly not a documentary, fiction alters reality. Characters – fictional – have their own autonomy.

A question of shame

If I wrote on the basis of what was called the Hissel affair in Belgium, it was because maybe there, in the story, the question was what each of us does with shame, guilt and silence. When I found out that the lawyer for the victims of Julie and Melissa’s parents, the little girls, Marc Dutroux, in turn, was condemned by the court that we all discovered the actions of his son in Belgium, I immediately wanted to try. Explore the tragic dimension of this news.”

He adds: “Again, it’s a question of shame, the shame of a teenager who sees her father as a media hero, a defender of the widow and the orphan, and knows what perversions the powerful patriarch hides in the heart of the family home.

A sister, a mother, a father may try to either suppress the truth, or say it with complete transparency, it is a blast for the son of a criminal, who in turn becomes a criminal. As in all tragedies, the outcome is fatal, inevitable and devastating.”

Un Silence with Daniel Auteuil and Emmanuelle Devos is in cinemas from Wednesday.