“Le Repli”, documentary on Islamophobia in France, new target of the far right

Professional associations denounce the hate campaign to which Joseph Paris' film is the subject on social networks. Attacks coming from the fascist sphere, which increasingly systematically targets cinema and its subsidies.

LThe fascist sphere has found a new Turkish face. It seems like she has time on her hands. After A few days no more, by Julie Navarro, who addressed the subject of young migrants, and Before the flames go out, by Mehdi Fikri, on police violence, it is the turn of a documentary to suffer its inept wrath online. The Withdrawal, by Joseph Paris, traces the rise of Islamophobia in France and the construction of an identity discourse obsessed with security. Politically hot topic certainly, but relatively confidential distribution. Released on October 30, 2024, this niche film was only distributed on twenty copies: we are far from an instrument of mass persuasion.

And yet, the distributor of FallbackHervé Millet (Destiny Films), reports“a surge of hatred on social networks, X, Facebook, racist comments mostly coming from people who haven't even seen the film. » “To believe that the fascists only had that to eat”, quips director Joseph Paris, who does not minimize the effects of this type of campaign. “I am very hurt that someone could accuse me, for example, of complacency towards the assassins of Samuel Paty. My film stands from start to finish on the side of the victims of Islamist terrorism! »

A “cultural war”

It all started during a preview of the film on October 12 in Limoges, where local left-wing activists identified members of the Action Française group who had come, on foot and by car, to pay a small “courtesy visit” to the team. of Fallback. “I saw them pass several times in front of my hotel and then in front of the cinema,” testifies Joseph Paris. The incident ends there. But nineteen days later, another screening, organized by Mrap (Movement against racism and for friendship between peoples) and by Attac, in Metz, will serve as a starting point for the unleashing of the fascist sphere on the social networks, notably on the Facebook page of the film and its distributor, Destiny Films.

During the post-screening debate, a heated exchange on the question of secularism in schools took place between the protagonist of the film, Yasser Louati, activist, former spokesperson for the Collective against Islamophobia in France (CCIF, dissolved by the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin in 2020), and a history-geography professor present in the room. “A few days latersays the producer, Audrey Ferrarese (Drouille de Trame), the teacher, member of the association of history-geography teachers of Lorraine, published a press release online attacking the film. » After listing his grievances against The Withdrawal, the press release concluded as follows: “It is disconcerting, two weeks after the tribute to Samuel Paty, to discover an already award-winning documentary financed by the CNC (National Center for Cinema and Animated Images) amalgamating so many sensitive social subjects to create a narrative bordering on conspiracy, where the few factual arguments are oriented in a deliberately misleading and dishonest direction. »

From there, the situation deteriorated, according to the producer. “The press release ended up on the extremist site Fdesouche before being taken up and hyped by a certain press. » On November 8, Laurence de Charette signed in Le Figaro an article full of nuances where The Withdrawalwhich she specifies that it benefited from the support of the CNC and the European Union, is described as “Brotherist propaganda film”. November 11th, Marianne publishes in turn an article soberly titled “the doc who ulcerates the teachers”.

In the meantime, an RN deputy from Aisne, Eddy Casterman, posted on his X account a video denouncing the screening of Fallback scheduled for November 27 at the National Assembly. Organized at the initiative of LFI MP Thomas Portes, this session, already full, is a screening “by invitation” only. According to the far-right site Boulevard Voltaire, Eddy Casterman wrote a letter, co-signed by his fellow deputies Anne Sicard and Thibaut Monnier, to ask the president of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, “to condemn the broadcast of this documentary film and to kindly shed light on the circumstances which made its screening possible in the cinema room of the National Assembly”.

The attacks coming from the press and from this RN deputy must not go unanswered.

Director Joseph Paris

While producer Audrey Ferrarese talks about “culture war”, director Joseph Paris tries to sort things out. “The online assault is one thing. But the attacks coming from the press and from this RN deputy must not go unanswered. These people would like cinema to be under the orders of a state ideology, which would be a serious attack on creative freedom. As for the call to censor a film within the confines of the National Assembly, I dare to hope that the President of the House will not let that pass. »

A great classic of the far right, the aid received by the attacked films is also systematically singled out as being “public money”. In the press release of support for Fallback and its team that the professional cinema associations (SDI, SPI, SRF) published yesterday, distributors, producers and directors recall in particular “that the funds of the CNC are not supplemented by any state budget credit and come solely and in their entirety from a tax levied on entry tickets and on broadcasters (mainly television and online media). It is a virtuous system of redistribution, envied throughout the world and which therefore does not come from taxes.”