four months in emulation of the editorial staff of the satirical newspaper

France 2 – WEDNESDAY JANUARY 8 AT 12:10 AM – REPORT

For obvious security reasons, the place where, every Wednesday, the editorial staff meets Charlie Hebdo is not specified. Nor are cameras allowed to enter the current premises of the satirical newspaper, where the entire team works. With the highlight, this year, the special issue of January 7 – its development serves as a common thread for the film.

Ten years after January 7, 2015. That day, Chérif and Saïd Kouachi, two jihadist terrorists, entered the premises at 6-10, rue Nicolas-Appert, in 11^e district of Paris, armed with a Kalashnikov and wreaked carnage.

Among the dead: Stéphane Charbonnier (known as Charb), editor-in-chief; the psychoanalyst Elsa Cayat; the journalists and cartoonists Georges Wolinski, Philippe Honoré, Bernard Maris, Jean Cabut (known as Cabu), Bernard Verlhac (known as Tignous). And Simon Fieschi, webmaster who died on October 17, 2024, “delayed victim”specifies Corinne Rey, known as Coco, designer and one of the survivors, with Ségolène Vinson, Philippe Lançon, Fabrice Nicolino and Laurent Sourisseau, known as Riss.

Riss (Laurent Sourisseau) immediately took over the editorial management of Charlie. And, on January 14, 2015, the newspaper was on the newsstands, because the terrorists must not win.

The objective remains the same ten years later, as evidenced by the extraordinary (in the literal sense of the term) film by Jérôme Lambert and Philippe Picard. They are the only ones to have had the right to pass through the armored door at the entrance and to share the daily life of the team for four months. Charlie.

Four months full of news, between the French political situation, the Mazan trial, the trial of Peter Cherif (accomplice of the Kouachi brothers), the election of Donald Trump and the trial of the assassination of Samuel Paty.

As the events unfolded, the directors recorded the exchanges and discussions, but only in soundtracks. In the image only very close-ups and the caricatures of the designer Juin, drawn in heat, appear. At the same time, a setting was recreated for the interviews.

Even if Coco or Riss evoke the day of the killing, the subject here is the future, transmission. How young journalists were able to integrate into the team, such as Jean-Loup Adénor, deputy editor-in-chief at Charlie Hebdo. When two new journalists arrive at the editorial conference on September 4, 2024, the cartoonist Foolz (still filmed from behind) says to them: “You must say which dead person you are replacing. »

If the editorial team has its own tone, the documentary seems to seek its own, between respect and “Charlie” jokes. A saving humor.

The evocation of Riss' career is an opportunity to review archive images of the first Charliewith Professor Choron and François Cavanna, with Cabu and Wolinski. The protagonists also return to February 2006 and the “affair” of the Danish caricatures.

Many feel the need to clarify that if Charlie did not exist, history and geography teachers would still be killed. “The first victims of Islamism in the world are Muslims”recalls Jean-Loup Adénor. “You must not let yourself be impressed”repeats Coco, at an editorial conference, December 18, 2024.

We were unable to watch the end of the documentary, which should end on the front page of Charlie dated January 7.