Cinema: “L’Abbé Pierre – A life of combat”, a flamboyant tribute to the creator of Emmaüs

Winter 1954 was the call that made him famous. No director could have imagined such a destiny as that of Abbé Pierre, resistance fighter, deputy, priest. He was revolted by poverty and injustice. He will fight throughout his life to help the homeless by creating the Emmaüs community. After Lambert Wilson, it’s Benjamin Lavernhe which slips into the Abbot’s black cape. He spent months preparing for his role.

A “sacred flame”

It’s in Neuilly-Plaisance (Seine-Saint-Denis) that the Emmaus community was born. Laurent Desmard accompanied Abbé Pierre for a long time, he still remembers his personality extraordinary. “He was a thief of boredom. When people came to see him to confide their troubles, he was so attentive that the guy’s ‘annoyance’ was already that of Abbé Pierre.says the honorary president of the Abbé Pierre Foundation.

For the companions of Emmaüs, invited to discover the film in preview, this new homage to cinema was necessary. One of them assures: “It reignites, if I may say so, the torch. That We [oblige] to have this sacred flame within us.” Le long-footage hides nothing of the Abbot’s life, that of a soldier and his commitment to the resistance.