discover the story of Bruno Sulak, played by Julien Bravo

“A thief with a big heart, king of escape, he is now forgotten. » In October 2013, the writer Philippe Jaenada regretted the speed with which the general public had forgotten Bruno Sulak, the “gentleman robber” of the 80s, on the occasion of the release of his book, “Sulak”. A spectacular and intense story which managed to shine a little light on this bandit like no other and which is today adapted for the small screen by Mélanie Laurent. In “Libre”, available on Prime Video, Julien Bravo plays the leading role in a scenario very close to that of Sulak’s life.

The story of Bruno Sulak is that of a man “steeped in charm” born in Sidi Bel Abbès, in Algeria, who after a stint in the Legion, in the parachute regiment of Calvi, in Corsica, became a deserter and burglar. Or rather “gentleman burglar”, because during the twenty supermarket hold-ups he carried out in the south of France at the end of the 1970s and his multiple jewelry store robberies (notably at Cartier in Paris and Cannes) , man has always made it a point of honor not to resort to violence.

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Bruno Sulak never loaded his gun before committing a burglary, acted openly with his “heist” brother, Yves Carillo, and beyond the fact that these shots never drew blood, he had the reputation to behave “with elegance and a touch of casualness”. In particular, he abandoned one of his hold-ups after a cashier felt unwell. When he emptied the supermarket checkouts, he also took care to collect all the checks in order to destroy them and thus offer the housewives their basket of the day. A behavior which created a certain sympathy among the general public towards him.

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The (fallen) king of the run

Arrested for the first time in 1980 for “desertion” after having married under his real identity, Arsène Lupine of modern times, Bruno Sulak transformed himself into a “king of the run” by managing to leave his guards alone once. first time. Arrested again on January 25, 1982 by a certain Georges Moréas (played by Yvan Attal), the robber once again managed to escape during his train transfer between Montpellier and Lyon. A scene nicely depicted in “Libre”.

Free in fact, it was at this moment that Sulak moved on to robberies of jewelry stores, notably Cartier (for loot estimated at 100 million francs) and became as sought after as Mesrine in his time. But it was also in these years that the young man committed one heist too many. In Thionville, the “gentleman” is forced to take a hostage and threatens the police with a grenade. A gesture that the former paratrooper finds difficult to accept. He then fled to Brazil, but tried to return to the south of France in February 1984 via Spain and made his second mistake: finding himself behind the wheel of a stolen car.

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Here he is in prison, first in Bayonne then in Gradignan. From there, Sulak attempted to organize his third escape, this time by helicopter, but his plan failed and one of his accomplices was killed by the police. A few weeks later, tried before the Tarn criminal court, his sense of repartee and his humor earned him great success in the courtroom, but did not prevent his sentence to nine years of imprisonment. Direction Fleury-Mérogis where the former robber kills time by studying for a law degree and writing. He notably published columns for “L’Autre journal”, which met with some success.

But Sulak champed at the bit and made a final escape attempt on the night of March 17 to 18, 1985 and fell from the second floor of Fleury-Mérogis, crashing against the asphalt 8 meters below. The official version says that the police tried to arrest him, but he jumped out of the window. His family disputes this version, saying he was pushed. Still, the young man fell into a coma and, after several operations, died on May 28, 1985 at the age of 29. In his obituary, our journalist Jean Cau saluted “a lord, a hero of a dark novel, a legend”.