It's a series that is talking a lot at the moment. Actress Michaela Coel writes, directs and stars in the I May Destroy You series on OCS. A must see.
With I May Destroy You, Michaela Coel, who we saw in the series Chewing gum on Netflix, unveils a poignant series dealing with the delicate subject of rape. Writer, creator and co-director on this new series, she also plays in it. I May Destroy You evokes the story of Arabella Essiuedu, a young author perceived as the new voice of her generation after being spotted on Twitter. One evening, when she has to hand in the first draft of her next novel, she decides to take a moment to relax and go out with friends. But unwittingly drugged during the evening, she is raped.
The next day, it's a total blur. The young woman has flashes, vaguely remembers what she suffered but is not sure of herself. She ended up going to the police station and filing a complaint. From there, we follow her entire reconstruction process and experience, with nameless transparency, how this aggression traumatized her. Awareness, difficulty in accepting, reconstruction … I May Destroy is of a nameless realism and asserts itself as a series of a nameless necessity, lifting the veil on an omerta which must truly end.
The importance of the female gaze in the series
Above all, the series brings an innovative look at the subject of rape thanks to the way it is treated. Since the beginning of this season 1, we live the story through his eyes, his feelings and those of anyone else. Throughout the episodes, we are on the side of the victim and only the victim. We only perceive his point of view and so much the better. Because it is an ingenious way to deal with this subject, however so delicate. Indeed, thanks to this series, Michaela Coel sends out the received ideas around rape. There is no "real rape" and "false rape", all rape victims are victims and have nothing to be ashamed of. The main character of the series, Arabella, is under the influence of drugs when she is assaulted and this is a point that is often raised by those around her during the series. In the end, she therefore faces multiple traumas. She was raped, but she was also drugged without her knowledge. Terrible but true, it is a double sentence for the young woman. Indeed, consent has not been taken into account twice and the guilt is all the more gnawing when it is indeed the aggressor who is to blame.
The strength of the series is also the way in which this subjective look brings a very didactic dimension to the subject which covers many others. There is aggression, then there is the way you see it. The television program evokes this moment of click when we realize what we have lived and we finally manage to put the right words on it. I May Destroy details this process very delicately. So, at the same time as the character of Arabella, we put words on a plague, we define it. If she is raped while under the influence of drugs, it is unfortunately not the only assault she will experience. One evening, the young woman is the victim of "stealthing " : a practice of removing the condom during sex without the consent of his or her partner. If the young woman tries to rebuild herself after the rape she suffered under the influence of drugs, she does not understand until after this other sexual intercourse is, in fact, rape as well. A terrible but didactic observation which makes it possible to weigh the gravity of certain acts. I May Destroy You shows that telling a story from the victim's point of view is game-changing and can shed light on a real topic.
Michaela Coelo was inspired by her own assault
If the show is a real slap in the face for the way the subject of rape is treated so well, it's because the show is based on a true story. In 2016, while working on the second season of the series Chewing gum from Netflix, Michaela Coel goes out for drinks with friends. She is then drugged without her knowledge and raped. I May Destroy is a series that was therefore written by a woman victim of rape and it is this realism, this authenticity that make the quality of this series as poignant as it is disturbing. The small screen finally gives the floor to a woman concerned by the subject. The result is such because Michaela Coel made the writing of this series a way to exteriorize her own trauma: “At that point, I couldn't even put a word to what I was feeling, it was as heart-wrenching as it was absurd, ironic. Soon after, I started taking notes on it all. C it was my way of taking distance from something very painful. " she explained to Parisian a while ago.
From the scene where Arabella complains to the reaction of those around her to the therapy and traumatic amnesia, I May Destroy is a nameless truth because it tells the story of its creator: “After my assault, when I was at the police station, in a room waiting for the police to come and take my statement, I was sitting with a friend,” says Michaela Coel. “I was disoriented, in shock. I looked at my friend and he was playing Pokémon Go on his phone. " she also explains before adding the test that the writing process of I May Destroy was for her after having lived such an ordeal: "It was quite traumatic, it plunged me back into the shock of what had happened to me. For me, if I want to succeed in writing, I have to feel things with my whole being. But I also had to find a way out for the characters and that helped me. "
I May Destroy You, available on OCS in France and produced by HBO, has the merit of changing tack and finally giving a voice to those concerned by this delicate subject of rape. Finally, we leave carte blanche to the victims, at the same time breaking the silence on the various subjects that this encompasses.
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