Commander Nebout violated, a new taboo broken by the France 3 series

The televiewers of the series “Plus belle la vie” will attend, Wednesday April 28, 2021, a very rare scene in a French fiction the rape of a man. As reported The Parisian, pistol in his mouth, the character of Commander Patrick Nebout will be forced to kneel in front of his attacker who, with his fly open, will launch the sentence “I always dreamed of hitting a cop.” To prepare for his role and bring this assault to the screen, actor Jérôme Bertin, who plays the policeman, met victims via the association The Resilient, which frees the floor to better rebuild itself with rape. “It is really a very strong social issue, which will certainly allow us to free the voice of men who are raped in France. Because it is a bit taboo subject, we talk about it very little, explains Jérôme Bertin to the newspaper. Every day, in France, there are between 7 and 40 men who are raped or victims of sexual assault. Every day. In France. It’s enormous. But you realize the range: between 7 and 40. That means the little precision we have! We are perhaps in the prehistory of the discovery of sexual violence against men. It is necessary to talk about it.”

It is following the various testimonies that the actor heard that he was able to build the psychology of his character at the time of the fictitious attack and after. “He thinks he’s going to get killed. Until he realizes he’s going to have to do something that’s going to destroy him. It’s like a second assault. (…) What I felt is that from the moment (the victims) speak, when they are able to overcome the shame, they were able to rebuild themselves. They do not erase the trauma, it is part of their identity, but it is no longer only experienced as suffering, it can become a force “, he declares to the Parisian.

“Plus belle la vie,” a series that breaks taboos

This is not the first time that More beautiful life positions itself on strong topics, in connection with social debates. In 2004, the series broadcast the first homosexual kiss on French television. Two men kiss each other at a time when millions of people are in front of their TVs. In 2011, it is about hard drugs and dependence: a of the protagonists injects heroin. Yet another episode shows Mirta’s character giving Thomas a “joint rolling” class.

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“It allows people to broach subjects they hear about in the news, except that, rather than broaching them in a 1 minute 30 format on the television news, we are going to talk about them for several weeks, through characters loved by viewers, asserted Jérôme Bertin to Point in 2019. It creates debate and makes it possible to discuss it in the family circle. ” Alzheimer’s, unemployment, disability, transidentity, rape … More beautiful life is a magnifying glass on our daily life and allows us to deconstruct certain clichés. Result: the plots that are intended to be realistic have a universal scope, but also allow us to enter into the complexity of the identities and experiences of each. Without doubt one of the secrets of the longevity and success of the France 3 program.