In theaters since Wednesday, “You will not have my hatred” adapts the story of journalist Antoine Leiris, whose companion died during the attacks of November 13, 2015.
You will not have my hatred of Kilian Riedhof
With Pierre Deladonchamps, Zoé Iorio, Camélia Jordana…
What is it about ? How do you overcome a tragedy without sinking into hatred and despair? The true story of Antoine Leiris, who lost Hélène, his beloved wife, during the attacks on the Bataclan in Paris, shows us a possible path: to his hatred of terrorists, Antoine opposes the love he has for his young son and his missing wife.
A tragic true story
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You will not have my hatred is taken from the book of the same name by journalist Antoine Leiris published in 2016. The latter wrote it after the death of his wife Hélène Muyal-Leiris on November 13, 2015 during the Bataclan attack. in Paris. Originally, You will not have my hatred is the title of an open letter he published on Facebook in the aftermath of the attack.
Director Kilian Riedhof read the book in one go on the advice of his aunt: “It moved me deeply. As I had rarely been reading a book. Perhaps because Antoine’s life before the attack was very similar to mine. My daughter has almost the same age than Melvil.”
After speaking to his co-authors, Jan Braren and Marc Blöbaum, he read them paragraphs and then the entire book. “They had tears in their eyes. And there, we understood that we had to get started.”
adaptation work
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To adapt Antoine Leiris’ book as respectfully as possible, the screenwriters decided to adopt the point of view of an empathetic friend while remaining as faithful as possible to the work.
“It would have seemed dishonest to us to change the background of the story. It is a very poetic, very subtle and touching narrative. We therefore had to be extremely careful about it. Where necessary, we brought formal dramatization. The subplot with his family was added in order to make Antoine’s inner transformation tangible.”says the director.
Find the right interpreter
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Casting director Constance Demontoy very quickly proposed Pierre Deladonchamps for the role of Antoine.
After the first casting session, the director was convinced by the actor: “He had the same vulnerability and nobility that I had observed in Antoine. This kind of affinity is essential when you play a lived story. Pierre is an exceptional actor. He is able to make a mental state transparent and tangible. This role plunges him into a psychological tour de force”.
The author’s involvement
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Kilian Riedhof only met Antoine Leiris twice: the first to get to know him for the film adaptation and the second six months later with the co-writers Marc Blöbaum and Jan Braren, in order to come back in detail. on its history.
The director describes their first interview as “one of the most emotionally strong moments in my directing career”. It wasn’t just about adapting a novel but about taking over a person’s life. Many producers coveted the rights to adapt his story and the journalist was not sure if he wanted to make a film out of it.
He agreed after talking with director and producer Janine Jackowski: “He thought it was a good idea that we made this film, us Germans who hadn’t been at the epicenter of the events, but who could watch it all from the right distance.”
The role of the child
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Finding the interpreter of Pierre’s 3-year-old child was not easy. The team looked for the rare pearl in France, Germany, Belgium and Switzerland, before finding Zoé Iorio.
The director remembers: “She’s a child of incredible intelligence and coordination. She can interpret thoughts. Where the other kids were having fun during the casting session and ‘just’ acting out, she made her inner process, like an adult actress. The decision was obvious. Finding Zoe was a stroke of luck.”
The young actress was accompanied for months by child coach Nouma Bordj. “When you ask a three-year-old child to play with his building blocks, to look towards the door at the right moment, then to say “Mom”, behind this seemingly simple sequence, there is a lot of work”says Kilian Riedhof.