To commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Allied victory on May 8, 1945, France Télévisions program for unpublished programs and fictions. After the special edition which will broadcast the ceremony chaired by Emmanuel Macron in Paris to celebrate the end of the Second World War, France 2 broadcasts the TV movie Resistant by Renaud Bertrand at 9:10 p.m.
In this fiction produced by France Télévisions, female resistance is at the heart of history. In 1970, Lucie Gauthier tried to obtain information on the past of her mother and grandfather, Armand Gauthier. For this, she went to the village of Provence where they spent the Second World War, where she met the mother Madeleine. While she saw her last days, she returns to this dark era that she had done everything to forget. In 1944, she was superior in an institute for young deaf girls and took advantage of her position to hide Jewish children and maquisards in her convent, despite the growing German threat over the days. By meeting Mother Madeleine, Lucie did not expect to discover terrible family secrets, who had remained buried so far.
A shooting exclusively in the Vaucluse
In ResistantLine Renaud embodies Mother Madeleine from 1970, while her 1944 character was interpreted by Béatrice Facquer. They are accompanied by Jonathan Zaccaï (Armand Gauthier), Elodie Navarre (Gisèle Gauthier) and Jade Foucart (Solange Gauthier). For the TV movie of Renaud Bertrand, the whole team went to the Vaucluse during the shooting which took place from September to October 2024. They turned in several towns and villages in the region, notably in Carpentras and Ménerbes. In this small village in Luberon, the actors, technicians and extras had invested the Saint-Hilaire abbey. They also went to Pernes-les-Fontaines, not far from Carpentras, and on the medieval site of the Fort de Buoux.
These villages were chosen because they kept their authenticity and were little modernized. Everything was done to be closer to reality, because Resistant is indeed inspired by a real story. “The film was shot in the Vaucluse, a high place of the French resistance, and at Mont Ventoux, known for having been one of the most important maquis in Provence. This due to the strategic position of the Massif in the Rhône valley, but also the number of refractories that had taken refuge there, and the reception of the local population”said the writers David Crozier and Camille Guichard in the film’s press kit. What recall the importance of their heroic acts 80 years later …
