Victim of incest during her adolescence, Emmanuelle Béart confronts her reality with that of others in “Un silence si noisy”, a moving documentary to be discovered this Sunday evening on M6.
“If my grandmother had not intervened, if I had not been put on that train at the age of 15 to join my father, I am not sure that I would have managed to live: it is as violent as that, it’s as real as that.” These are the words used by Emmanuelle Béart to describe the hell of incest, of which she was a victim during her adolescence.
This incest, this trauma that she has carried within her for decades, Emmanuelle Béart has decided to bring it to light with a moving documentary, Un silence si boisterous, broadcast this Sunday evening, at 11:10 p.m., on M6. A strong and necessary work, even indispensable, in which the actress confronts her reality with that of others through several victims’ stories.
With A Silence So Loud, the objective of Emmanuelle Béart and director Anastasia Mikova (who signed the documentary film Woman with Yann Arthus-Bertrand) is to show the ravages of incest over time, to highlight words on the fight of victims, facing those around them, facing justice, facing the silence of society, to move forward and be able to rebuild themselves.
With tact and modesty, Emmanuelle Béart and Anastasia Mikova collect very powerful testimonies, interspersed with animated passages which reinforce the trauma experienced by each speaker. Making the victims’ words heard so that the public understands the violence of what they experience, in order to encourage society as a whole to better protect them, such is the mission of the two women with this documentary from which we do not emerge unscathed.
A silence that is too loud often hurts, shakes, shocks, and its words still resonate well after the end credits. It’s a film that is upsetting, as when one of the victims, who didn’t remember anything but had a breakthrough while watching the film Les Chatouilles, reveals his heavy past to those close to him. Like when someone else goes on stage to free themselves from the trauma. Or like when Emmanuelle Béart realizes, in front of a psychologist, that the fact of having sexualized her image on the screen, of having believed that one could only be loved by the body, is a response to the incest experienced years ago.
At the end of A Silence Too Loud, Emmanuelle Béart speaks with a little victim in a very touching scene then concludes in voice-over : “It is no longer up to us to speak, this film exists. I do not yet know the repercussions it will have on me, but I know that I also made it out of love, for the child that I have been.”
As a reminder, as indicated in the preamble to the documentary:
– 10% of the French population is a victim of incest.
– 1 in 5 girls.
– 1 in 12 boys.
Child in danger appeal: 119
Ciivise (Independent Commission on Incest and Sexual Violence Against Children) alert numbers: 0 805 802 804 (Anonymous and free call, inaccessible from abroad) and 0 800 100 811 (Anonymous and free call, including from overseas departments and abroad)