Around ten women, including screenwriters, actresses and technicians, explain that the director created a “toxic” and “destabilizing” environment during his filming.
The testimonies, which cover a period of twenty years, report tensions, humiliation, denigration and psychological pressure on the part of the filmmaker, described as deliberately creating conflicts. Some employees also speak of a sexualized atmosphere and inappropriate advances. They also denounce a “system of control” and a “pattern of predation” established on the director’s sets. Belgian actress Virginie Efira, who worked with the filmmaker on the film “Continue” (2019), confided that this filming experience was “probably” among the “worst” of her career, describing “a team that didn’t couldn’t take it anymore.”
Joachim Lafosse: “I hope not to make a moralistic cinema, but I have a moral”
An assistant director, for her part, accuses Joachim Lafosse of acts that could amount to sexual assault, which occurred the day before the first day of filming for “Nue Property” when she was 23 years old. In addition, she also claims to have suffered an incident on the last day of filming, when the director pressed a bottle of compressed air into her ear, which allegedly caused her to suffer from tinnitus for two years. At this stage, no official complaint has been filed against the filmmaker. In an e-mail addressed to Libération, Joachim Lafosse contested the accusations made against him, claiming to have “never sought to intentionally offend or humiliate anyone.” However, he admits that he could have been “dry, stressed and anxious”, particularly on his first films.
