“Mesrine, the French… All these guys were very violent. They didn’t respect women very much. Bruno, he tore up checks… He was a sort of Robin Hood. What was interesting about this project and which symbolizes the history of humanity, is that we remember Mesrine, we remember the French, we remember all these gangs, but we do not remember Sulak Il. was yet public enemy number one, he was one of all the news stories. We talked about him a lot at the time, but he’s not someone that history remembers. For the press kit of Libre, a Prime Video film available Friday November 1, 2024, Mélanie Laurent (to whom we owe in particular Thieves et The Fools’ Ball) tells what fascinated her in the story of Bruno Sulak, to the point of entrusting his role to Lucas Bravo. But who really was the man she describes in her feature film?
Who was Bruno Sulak? A look back at the life of the former robber and legionnaire who inspired Libre by Mélanie Laurent
In 29 years of life, Bruno Sulak has managed to enter the Pantheon of French robbers. And this, even if its name doesn’t mean much to you. In the mid-1980s, he increased the number of robberies of supermarkets and jewelry stores in Paris and Cannes, without ever resorting to violence. Often arrested, he earned the nickname “king of escape” for his releases from prison, both spectacular and humiliating for the police forces of the time. He first sawed off the bars of his cell, then, another time, was saved by armed accomplices during a police transfer by train. Before embarking on this life of a brigand, this son of a legionnaire also wore the uniform for a time. “Since he was very young, he has been restless. A kid from Marseille, raised facing the sea, he joined the Foreign Legion at the age of 20. A nice gesture, but above all respect for a family tradition. His father is a former white Képi, having served in Indochina from where he returned with one arm missing and a few decorations more. In Calvi, where he serves in the paratroopers, Sulak is the legionnaire Bernard Suchon En. 1978, he deserted”wrote Le Figaro in 2008. What followed were troubles with the law, on the run, in hiding, and in the middle, it seems, a marriage with the birth of a baby. His complicity with Steve Jovanović (real name Novica Zivkovic), former bodyguard of Jean-Paul Belmondo, also marked many of his crimes. But neither one nor the other is here to tell them today. If the last one was shot down near a helicopter in 1984 while trying to free his friend imprisoned in Bordeaux, Sulak died the following year, again during an escape attempt, while he had decided to retire. The circumstances of his death have long haunted his family, who at the time filed a complaint and requested the opening of an investigation.
Georges Moréas, former police officer, challenges Mélanie Laurent’s version of the film
By imbuing the story of a passionate romance between Sulak and a certain Annie, Mélanie Laurent offers a rhythmic, touching and colorful film. And above all very romantic. It makes you wonder: how faithful is it to reality? Pauline, the robber’s sister, constantly shouts that she opposed the project and that it in no way reflects the person her brother really was. On her website, she notably accuses the director, who did not take into consideration their refusal to see the film released, of “theft of life which, unlike the theft of jewels which concerned him, has no nobility, no honor. And it is even possible that the law [lui] proves right as she proved right those who shot him coldly one evening in March 1985”. As for Georges Moréas, a former police officer on the case, he took up his pen in the columns of Mondeon October 25, 2024, to reestablish its truth. “The release of Libre corresponds a few days to the birthday of Bruno Sulak and that of his friend Radisa Jovanovic, says Steve. Both would have been 69 years old. Steve died under the bullets of a Bordeaux PJ police officer, in March 1984; Bruno while attempting another escape, in March 1985. […] Mélanie’s film is a beautiful love story between Bruno (Lucas Bravo) and Annie (Léa Luce Busato), his accomplice, but for the rest, it is a full-time fiction. Only Yvan Attal’s wig in the role of the commissioner (me) can recall my hair of the time”he quips. But what puzzles the former cop the most is this very stylized ending of the film. In real life, Bruno Sulak would have fallen out of the window while trying to escape from Fleury-Mérogis prison…
The Controversial Accounts of Bruno Sulak’s Death
“In March 1983, after a hold-up in Thionville which had gone wrong, and which could have ended in bloodshed, Bruno Sulak decided to stop. […] For the robberies, he kept his word. In August, he hit the Cartier jewelry store in Cannes; in December, the jewelry store Les Ambassadeurs in the cozy gallery of the Geneva Hilton – and he flew to Brazil. […] On his return from Brazil, via Portugal, a trainee customs officer ticks his identity documents, in the name of Radisa Savik. […] What he doesn’t know is that the car he paid for in cash in Portugal is a stolen vehicle. Head to prison. […] Although registered as a DPS, Bruno Sulak is a problem-free inmate, rather well regarded by his guards. He becomes friends with Marc Metge, an intern for whom this is his first position. […] Also, when he asks her to help him escape, he doesn’t say no. Especially since Sulak promises him a large sum of money. A transfer to an offshore account”says Georges Moréas. But nothing goes as planned. “What happened afterwards, no one knows. Probably as a round approached, Sulak took refuge in an office on the second floor, the only one not locked, the one where he finds the coffee machine. Perhaps he even opened the window with the idea of jumping out. The door opens… He just has time to slip into a cupboard before the guards enter the rooms. places. […] The fugitive holds his breath – but not his walkie-talkie.[…] Taking advantage of the surprise effect, he rushes towards the window. The supervisors try to detain him. They grab him by his jacket. It remains in their hands. Sulak falls rather than jumps seven meters below, onto the asphalt of the parking lot.. A version contested for almost 40 years by those close to Sulak.
