“We are really between fiction and documentary”, explains Jean Dujardin about the film “November” which will be released in theaters on October 5th. Guest of franceinfo this Monday, September 26, the actor returned to his state of “stunned” after the attacks of November 13, 2015. The film retraces the race against time led by the anti-terrorist sub-directorate (Sdat) during the five days of investigation following the terrorist attacks of November 13, the deadliest that the France has known. A movie “to remember the victims and the families of the victims”judges the actor.
franceinfo: Where were you on November 13, 2015?
Jean Dujardin : I was in Beaune with Claude Lelouch for the presentation of “Un plus une”. We were at the restaurant, it was going very well. And then we received a message on the cell phone and we returned at night, in the early morning, to an empty Paris, with haggard people. And it was amazement.
Today, you are therefore showing the film “November”, by Cédric Jimenez. A film which retraces the five days of investigation which followed the attacks with the trial and error, the false leads, the tension also in the team of investigators. Why this point of view, that of the anti-terrorism investigators?
This is the point of view of Olivier Demangel, the screenwriter for surely full of reasons. Already, to talk about the collective, to get as far away as possible, I think, from something absolutely obscene which would have been to show the scenes of attacks. The Americans or the Anglo-Saxons do that, they would have already made three films of it. It is also a common history, it is also to remember, to remember the victims, the families of the victims. Also tell yourself that it can come back. We are really between fiction and documentary.
Did the trial have to be over for the film to be released? Justice comes before the cinema can go there…
Yes, it was better that way.
In the film, you search through the hundreds and hundreds of leads that come in, the calls…
Indeed, there are thousands and thousands of hearings, minutes, cross-checks in all directions. And indeed, the terrorists are still three hours ahead of them. It is complicated. We feel that the ministry is pushing to one side, the Élysée too. There are also two generations in the film who oppose each other, but who work together with the generation of actors like Anaïs Demoustier and Sami Outalbali who are much more instinctive, ready to circumvent the legal rules. We [les vieux] we are more old-fashioned, we are in the code of criminal procedure, in the procedure and it all has to work. But we don’t have time, we don’t have time anymore.
There is a testimony that will change everything in the real investigation and in the film, it is that of a young girl. In the real investigation, her name was Sonia, in the film, it is Samia. She will make it possible to locate the leader of the November 13 commando Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who will ultimately be killed in the assault on his apartment in Saint-Denis, it is almost her who plays the main role of this film…
It is absolutely crucial. That’s what’s incredible. Usually, I assume that these people work on facts and have to hang on to very serious things, whereas here we are on instinct. We are only on the human and we must trust. We’re talking about details, about those sneakers because she’s one of the only ones who knows that one of the terrorists has orange sneakers. The police doubt his word. We spend our time checking once again if this is good information, even if it means going back to Morocco, to find family ramifications, etc. To see if it would all fit together. And indeed, if this terrorist was well hidden under the A86.
The actress who plays this young girl, Lyna Khoudri, is veiled on screen, which was not the case with the “real witness”. Why this choice of staging?
I don’t think it’s a choice. There is no deliberate choice of the director. In my opinion, there is no message there. But it remains a fiction anyway since I even believe that the real character was married, there she is not, so inevitably at some point, you have to make the distinction between fiction and reality.