Heloise Goy with Alexis Patri
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10:49 a.m., January 17, 2022
France 3 broadcasts Monday evening at 11:05 p.m. a documentary entitled “Sect of the solar temple: Vercors, the shock wave”. Its co-director Marion Guégan explains to the microphone of Europe 1 why she was interested in this affair, that she wanted to tell what changed in the Vercors and in France the collective suicide of 1995.
A sect that led to collective suicide in 1995 and whose ravages continue today. It is this story that France 3 tells Monday evening with the documentary Sect of the solar temple: Vercors, the shock wave. On December 23, 1995, a terrible incident hit the village of Saint-Pierre-de-Chérennes, in Vercors. Sixteen bodies had been found charred in the middle of the forest. All of these deceased were members of the Order of the Solar Temple sect. It was the first time that followers of a sect committed suicide on French soil.
Telling the shock wave that lasts
“We wanted to tell various facts a little differently, by talking about their impact on French society”, explains to Europe 1 Marion Guégan, the co-director of the documentary. “Quite quickly, we talked about this collective suicide in the Vercors. This made us want to tell this story from a completely different angle from what we have already seen on television: telling the investigation, but above all telling what happened next and what changed.”
We can therefore hear in this documentary the testimonies of the mayor (still in place) of Saint-Pierre-de-Chérennes, of a man who lost his wife and son, or even of the investigating judge in charge of the case. . All are still traumatized by this incident.
“Anyone can be indoctrinated”
“The inhabitants have experienced a tsunami of journalists from all over the world. It is usually a village which is very calm, where there are very few tourists”, recalls Marion Guégan. “People were afraid to go back to this forest for a while. And there are people who experienced the tragedy very closely, like the mayor of Saint-Pierre-de-Chérennes who saw the bodies and still has this image. horror in the head.”
By trying to understand the shock wave of this massacre in the region, the co-director hopes that her documentary will be able to have an educational impact. “Anyone can fall into a sect, anyone can be indoctrinated,” she warns. “It does not depend on our social background or our education. For us, it was important to show it and to remember that sectarian movements still exist in France. Today, people are still in danger.”
The documentary Sect of the solar temple: Vercors, the shock wave is to be seen Monday evening at 11:05 p.m. on France 3.