based on the real-life case of Victor Hissel, a lawyer who represented the distraught parents of two of the children raped and murdered by serial killer Marc Dutroux. In a bizarre twist, Hissel himself was then charged with possession and use of child pornography.
But she has inklings, as does the audience, that it is not over; we see Francois pad down to his study in the middle of the night, hear the shrieks emanating from his laptop.“This is actually the result of a mental construction over 30 years,” says Devos, also in San Sebastian. “I saw a lot of movies about different stories of this kind of incest, documentaries, and what is incredible is that the mothers ... always react in these astonishing ways. They are always, always in denial.
“I know that in his life, certain situations and certain people he knows very well are victims,” says Lafosse. Auteuil’s former wife, Emmanuelle Beart, has revealed that she was abused in her early teens by members of her family. For much of that time, he couldn’t acknowledge that while Hissel’s case was fascinating, it was his own history that made it so compelling.