Fabien Onteniente changes register. The king of popular comedy, director of Camping, Jet set or Disco went behind the camera to pay tribute to the French who hid Jews during the Occupation. Les enfants des Justes is broadcast on Wednesday March 23 on France 2 as part of a special evening. This TV movie, adapted from Christian Signol’s book published in 2012, features Mathilde Seigner and Gérard Lanvin.
These devotees of Fabien Onteniente’s comedies play Blanche and Virgile, a couple of farmers from Périgord who are asked to hide two Jewish children, Sarah and Simon. As the days go by, unbreakable ties will be forged on the Laborie farm, despite checks, betrayals and denunciations. “I wanted to highlight ordinary people, ordinary French people who have done extraordinary things, says Fabien Onteniente. Without being resistant, simply because it seemed normal to them, some did not even ask for recognition”.
The war in Ukraine today pushes French families to welcome refugees and Fabien Onteniente sees an echo with this story. “It’s appalling what is happening, but what reassures me about human beings is to see that people have extraordinary behavior. The word solidarity is very important to me.” For this history buff, making a film about this period of the Second World War takes the form of a culmination. “I have always been passionate about this period because our parents told us a lot about it”, lift director.
“I always wondered what I would have done at that time.”
Fabien Onteniente, directorat franceinfo
During confinement, his relatives pushed him to make this dramatic film, far from the comedies that made his success and his reputation. “I am a pied-noir son and Sunday afternoons were sometimes painful. I did comedy to get out of this Sunday torpor, explains Fabien Onteniente. I had read Christian Signol’s live and I was able to realize this dream of making a film”.
But the football fan that he is does not forget his other passion and could return to comedy very quickly with the sequel to the film. Three Zeros released in 2002. “It’s going to be called ‘Four Zeros‘ and we’re going to show behind the scenes of current footballreveals the director. At the time, twenty years ago, there were no social networks. Today, footballers have become Kardashians. The release of the film is not yet scheduled, but it should be reserved for a platform like Amazon or Netflix.