Filmmakers say French police brutality drama “After The Fire” is being hit by a right-wing smear campaign

The producer and distributor of the French police brutality drama After the fireThe film, which had its world premiere at Toronto’s Discovery Series this year, says the film’s theatrical release was marred by a right-wing smear campaign.

Actions against this picture include an attempt to lower the work’s public rating on the film website Allociné (the French equivalent of a Rotten Tomatoes rating), as well as the spread of disinformation about the production by right-wing media such as CNews, the British a newspaper. News or Fox News.

In the drama, popular singer and actress Camélia Jordana plays a woman who seeks justice after her younger brother dies under suspicious circumstances in police custody.

This is the first story from Mehdi Fikri, who spent a decade as a reporter covering social conflict and the issues of police brutality and justice in France’s notoriously disadvantaged suburbs.

The work, conceived by Fikri over many years and recorded last year, gained new resonance in post-production after police shot and killed 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk on the outskirts of Paris in June after she fled a traffic stop.

The death sparked unrest in cities across France and reignited a long-running public debate about police brutality. The police officer accused of firing the fatal shot has since been released under judicial supervision while the case is still being heard in court.

With this in mind, Bac Films’ release of the film on November 15 was a difficult affair.

Several conservative media outlets took shots at the film.

Le Point magazine called the photo “a propaganda film” and falsely claimed it was a thinly veiled account of the circumstances surrounding the death of Adama Traoré, whose death at the age of 24 in police custody in 2016 has since been of George was compared. . Floyd in 2020.

The article still found gaps in Fikri’s interpretation of Traoré’s story, even though the film is not about this individual case.

Traoré’s disinformation, which was highlighted by a number of media, prompted the production to release a statement claiming that the film is not based on a single, true case and that Jordana’s character is all the “sisters , mothers, aunts, fathers” included what is represented. . and brothers” who stood up for justice.

Misinformation also circulated about the film’s budget and the amount of government funding it received. According to reports, 36% of the €2.5 million budget came from public funds.

Producer Michael Gentile of Le Film in Paris believes these claims are false.

He points out that the film was not eligible for Advance on Receipts funding from the National Cinema Center (CNC), but instead received a €70,000 diversity grant and €340,000 support from the Eastern Region + Métropole Strasbourg.

“France 3 Cinema, which contributed 500,000 euros of funding, cannot be considered public support, as it is a pre-purchase for the channel and a 30% co-production,” he explained.

“The part that can be considered as state aid is around 400,000 euros out of a budget of 2.5 million euros, that is to say 16% of the budget.”

David Grumbach, CEO of Bac Films, points out that the campaign against the film seriously affected the film’s performance at the box office.

“Today we reached 17,000 visitors after the first week … we were expecting around 100,000,” he told Deadline on Thursday.

“The attacks clearly hurt the performance of the film,” he continued. “After the Nahel matter, the subject [of police violence] became very sensitive. And above all, a fascist atmosphere arose on social networks, incredibly violent towards the actors and the film,” he added.

Bac Films had to close the comments section on the trailer’s YouTube page and also scaled back its plans to encourage public debate on the issues raised in the film.

“We also had a number of rejections from television channels, for news or talk shows, who chose not to invite us in order not to draw attention from the fascist atmosphere and preferred to concentrate on ‘feel good’ films,” Grumbach said. said.

“But we are still very proud of the film and despite the disappointment at the box office we are satisfied with the result… The film will be broadcast on France 3, OCS and Netflix.”

With this in mind, Allociné confirmed in a post on its website that it had registered an attempt to tamper with the film’s music, causing the rating to drop to 1.4 out of 5.0 before the film was even released for first appeared in theaters.

The site says that newly created accounts posted more votes and ratings than usual, while the votes were typically very low or very high.

“A number to illustrate this unusual distribution of ratings: At the time of writing, more than 70% correspond to a so-called extreme rating, i.e. a 0.5 or a 5,” the site says.

It was noted that the critics’ average rating of 3.1 was more in line with the film’s expectations.

The French directors’ association La Société des Réalisatrices et Réalisateurs de Films (SRF) issued a statement on Wednesday saying that the pressure against After the fire was part of a broader attack on culture by the far right.

The agency said far-right groups ran similar campaigns against Philippe Faucon’s 2016 film. Amenabout a Senegalese migrant worker in Paris who begins a relationship with a French woman, and the 2022 films, Lola Quivoron’s dirt bike drama rodeo and that of Émilie Frèche In a better worldabout a family that secretly takes in a young migrant boy.

“It is clear that we are witnessing a determined, large-scale and coordinated offensive by this movement against the cultural sector in which cinema, as a folk art par excellence, is a privileged target,” SRF said.

“While we SRF filmmakers remain deeply committed to freedom of expression, we strongly condemn these intimidation tactics, as they in fact aim to implement de facto censorship without recognition.

“By doing so, they undermine the creative freedom of filmmakers and the free distribution of works. By attacking the multiplicity of stories and themes, it also endangers the right to fiction, an essential part of life in a democracy.”