In 2014, Anne Consigny embarked on an ambitious project: to make a documentary about a young Armenian, Nariné, suffering from a very virulent cancer and who had tried, in vain, to seek treatment in France. The actress, who had welcomed the young woman and her very poor mother, had accompanied them until Nariné’s death and had decided to make a film about their story.
A powerful documentary and a story that marked her deeply, she who lost loved ones to cancer, including a companion in the past, a story she rarely talks about.
In 2016, during an interview with Paris Match on the subject, the actress had revealed in half-words this story that she refuses to approach: “I have a friend who died of cancer, a lover too.” Deceased relatives of whom she will no longer speak and who, however, have not revived in her the fear of death. “However, that doesn’t bother me that much. My grandmother died at 99, I had an extremely strong bond with her, so I know I will live as long as she does.“, she continued.
The actress and director, however, recently became aware of the passage of time: “When I turned 50, I realized that I was going to start the second part of my life, but also the last. I had never thought of that before.“However, his conviction remains strong and could only crumble in one context:”Only the death of my children could scare me.“
The project on the young Nariné was of course shown several times to the family and the profits were used to help her parents, who are very poor and who are raising their children with difficulty. An obligatory act for the mother of Vladimir and Louis, whose father is director Benoît Jacquot: “It would allow them to buy a house, pay Nariné’s father for hip surgery and glasses for Susanna. That they have a basis to live more serenely. Then I can die peacefully.“
Very frank, she confides in this ordeal which changed her life: “Because I’ve been completely obsessed with them ever since I met them. As if the fact that Nariné died in my house had given me a responsibility. As if I had stolen their daughter for a bit. And if people think I’m just a bourgeois who wants his place in heaven, I answer: ‘Yes, maybe’. In the meantime, I act.“