French state TV has postponed the broadcast of a romantic film about a fictional couple who fall in love against the backdrop of the terrorist attack on the Bataclan concert hall in Paris, after a petition demanded the “hurtful” project be dropped.
The TV film, Ce soir-là (That Night), finished filming last week. But after the widow of a Bataclan victim gathered more than 38,000 signatures for an online petition, France’s main public TV channel, France 2, said the project had been put on hold while producers consulted survivors’ groups.
On 13 November 2015, 130 people were killed in coordinated terrorist attacks in Paris and the suburb of St-Denis. Armed men entered the Bataclan concert hall during a gig by Eagles of Death Metal, killing 90 people and injuring scores of others over two hours.
The film had been billed as “a great love story” between a woman living behind the Bataclan and a passerby who both help people fleeing the gunmen. When survivors later ask to meet the people who helped them, the man and the woman cross paths again and a relationship begins.
The attack inside the concert hall was not to be shown in the film.
Claire Peltier, whose husband was killed inside the Bataclan, launched a petition last month demanding the “hurtful” film be dropped. “This project has hurt and shocked us,” she wrote. “We’re scandalised that a TV project like this could be made so soon after such a violent event.
“To live our grief, we need silence, restraint, dignity and respect ... and not a romantic fiction aimed at boosting your channel’s ratings.”
France 2 issued a statement saying it had decided “to adjourn this project until the film’s producers have consulted all survivors’ groups”. The channel said no date had been set for broadcast and its executives had yet to view the film.
Arthur Dénouveaux, the head of one survivors’ association, Life For Paris, told the news agency AFP: “Even if we never asked for the censorship of this film, we’re happy that reserve and restraint has won out.” He said the role of his organisation was not to act as a censor.
