This evening, M6 broadcasts “Life, love, right away”, a film which traces the journey of a young teenager with cystic fibrosis who will choose to carry her pregnancy to term despite the disease. But is this film inspired by a true story?
Life, Love, Right Now is an unpublished fiction retracing the journey of Julie (Sandy Afiuni), a young teenager with cystic fibrosis.
A young woman with a strong character, Julie lives to the rhythm of physiotherapy sessions and hospital stays. If she leads the fight against the disease, she does not forget her dream, that of founding a family.
When she falls in love with Ludo at the age of 16 and becomes pregnant, she decides to keep the baby, even if it means putting her life in danger. Julie will then hide her pregnancy from her parents and her doctor until it is no longer possible to encourage her to have an abortion.
Life, Love, Now is the inspiring story of a courageous and determined teenager who never gave up on her dreams.
IS THE TELEFILM INSPIRED BY A TRUE STORY?
The answer is yes ! Life, Love, Immediately tells the true story of Julie Briant. Suffering from cystic fibrosis, the latter published a book in 2020 in which she recounts her life, her fight against the disease, her dreams and the family life that she has built so hard. Today Julie is 27 years old. She is married and the mother of two children.
If the book retraces the life of Julie from her adolescence until today, Caroline Franc and Florian Spitzer, the screenwriters of the film, have meanwhile chosen to adapt only Julie’s first pregnancy by making the transition to some tweaks..
On this subject, Caroline Franc and Florian Spitzer explain in the film’s press kit “We have tried to always stay as close as possible to the truth of her story, while allowing ourselves a real work of fiction, in particular in the unfolding of the events of her pregnancy, which for example condenses in reality her two pregnancies, Julie having had two children.“, Explain
And the two screenwriters continue, “We needed to stretch the narrative and dramatize it, which necessarily requires arrangements with the chronology of events. We have also redefined the family framework a bit. Julie has indeed two sisters in real life, here too we have taken true elements from each of them to make one, or changed the profession of her parents.”.
Despite these few changes for the needs of the script, Caroline Franc and Florian Spitzer ensured that Julie did not feel betrayed and that the film was consistent with what she experienced.
On the occasion of the last La Rochelle Fiction Festival, Caroline Franc assured “really respect reality. Julie actually waited until she was 14 weeks pregnant to tell her mother. She actually lied to her family and the doctor to keep her baby. It sounds crazy but that’s really how it happened. And it worked because the doctor didn’t suspect it, the mother didn’t see it when she was really on her back all the time.“.
Ultimately, the screenwriters had at heart through this story to show viewers the maturity of Julie despite her 16 years as well as her courage in the face of the disease but also to testify to the strength of her love story with Ludo which still continues. today.