“Happening” director Audrey Diwan on Roe V Wade: “I never imagined that such a great democracy could accept it” – Guest column

Editor’s Note: French director and screenwriter Audrey Divan is the director of the Venice Golden Lion’s drama on abortion that happens (L’Evénément). Adaptation of the autobiographical novel of the same name by the famous French writer Annie Erno. emotionally horrible e physically dangerous combat A brilliant literature student had an abortion in 1963, about 12 years before it was legalized in France. The sudden release of the film in the United States by IFC Films in May coincided with information leaked in a document that the Supreme Court was about to overturn a landmark 1973 decision that recognized women’s constitutional right to abortion in the United States. United States occurred on Friday (June 24). When abortion clinics closed in some states in the United States, Divan wrote an article on the decision that shocked the world.

We must not deceive ourselves. Let’s start with the facts. We all know that when the right to abortion is questioned, the practice does not disappear: it changes nature. Where abortion is prohibited, it is hidden. Women do not give up their freedom, they risk their lives to remain so.

While reading Ani Erno’s book Happening, I was struck by my lack of knowledge on the subject. We often talk about theoretically hidden abortion. He wanted to offer you his physical and visceral transcript.

I realized that many times I have been involved in debates without knowing exactly what I was talking about: pain, loneliness, danger, social inequality. Because illegal abortion is much riskier when you don’t have the money to do it under the right conditions. And there is gender inequality, of course …

I have two children, thirteen and fourteen. Boy and girl. I raised them and told them they were the same. I can’t imagine telling them otherwise, explaining that I was wrong, my son who is free and my daughter who is no longer free. This story seems dystopian to me.

ᲝThree months ago, I showed it happens Ends in several American cities, Atlanta. After the testimony, several young women approached me with pale expressions and said: “We are, we are the women who are about to die.” When I returned to France, their voices were heard. I never imagined that such a large democracy could accept it. Nor did I imagine that fiction would ever become such a brutal and crucial reality in the United States.