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A woman is jogging on the beach, elbows willing, cheeks swollen with effort. So the documentary begins Alive(s) (broadcast on Canal+ on March 5), by Claire Lajeunie, which traces the fight of Sarah Barukh, a 43-year-old novelist who became an activist in the fight against violence against women. After the publication of several novels, she launched and directed the collective work 125 and thousands. 125 personalities tell the story of 125 victims of femicide, published in March 2023 by HarperCollins.
This monster book was as striking for its excess as for its subject: it brings together over five hundred pages the portrait by several personalities of one hundred and twenty-five women killed by their spouse or ex-spouse. One hundred and twenty-five: the average number of feminicides recorded in France each year. A figure to document this “phantom pandemic”, as the United Nations has called it since 2020. But also a cathartic approach for the author, who herself experienced harassment and beatings. “It was a close call for my name to be added to the list,” she whispers. The film Alive(s) recounts the genesis of the book until its promotion.
Sarah Barukh dissects more than ten years of a relationship “toxic and violent” with the father of her daughter. A daily life made up of bullying, absurd rituals and prohibitions, attacks of jealousy. Her tyrannical partner goes so far as to blame her for using the toilet flush at night, so Sarah Barukh ends up sleeping in her daughter’s room and using a salad bowl as a chamber pot. Those close to her see her withdraw and isolate herself, she who was once cheerful, in love with singing and music. Her partner has ” extinguish the fire “, says Sarah Barukh’s father in Alive(s).
Shame of being designated as a victim
It was at the birth of her daughter that Sarah Barukh first clicked. “When she was born, I realized it wasn’t right. Thanks to my child, this “third eye”, I began to observe the situation from the outside and realize that I was becoming a future victim. » Until the argument too many, the night of June 5 to 6, 2020, during which the 41-year-old woman decided to flee.
She hastily gathers her 3-year-old daughter’s comfort toys and bottles and finds the strength to file a complaint, encouraged by a police officer. “exceptional”, who forbids her from returning home. She says she feels ashamed at being designated as a victim of violence, thinking she does not fit the stereotype. Sarah Barukh grew up in a privileged and loving environment, raised by a doctor father and a teacher mother and is still unaware that this type of violence transcends all social classes.
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