Talk, talk and talk again. To rebuild ourselves and close the book on a painful story, to raise awareness about a largely underestimated phenomenon, and above all to tell other victims: “you are not alone”. “The torturers have the art and the way of making you feel guilty, of making you feel guilty and responsible for your rape. Maybe my story will be useful to others, will help them in their reconstruction journey,” confides Rénald. This 48-year-old florist is one of the figures in Leila Bendali's documentary “Chemical submission: so that shame changes sides”, broadcast this Tuesday evening on France 2. An essential film to understand the reality of a scourge that it is difficult to measure.
If the story of Gisèle Pelicot, drugged for ten years by her husband who handed her over to strangers to rape her, serves as a common thread, the documentary gives voice to other victims to tell the multiple facets of the chemical submission. Like Rénald, drugged in a nightclub when he was 17. Although thirty-two years have passed, he remembers his attack precisely: the drug ingested without his knowledge did not make him lose consciousness but made him incapable of the slightest movement. “I was screaming inside but no sound came out of my mouth, I was locked in my body. »
The many facets of chemical submission
Other victims do not have the slightest memory of their attack. This is the case of Zoé, attacked when she was 15 on the evening of the Fête de la Musique. “For a long time, I told myself that it was better that I didn't remember. But the fact of not knowing leaves a huge room for interpretation, for hypotheses,” confides this woman who became a doctor and activist in the documentary.
She knows nothing about her attackers, unlike Céline, who knows perfectly well that it was one of the clients of the art gallery in which she worked. For Katia, he was a fellow banker, like her. For Lilwen, her father. “The Mazan rape trial showed that chemical submission is not just GHB in a drink at a nightclub. Anyone can be a victim, it happens much more frequently than it seems,” insists Rénald. His attacker was a man whose advances he had rejected for a long time.
Voice-over of this documentary, Caroline Darian, the daughter of Gisèle Pelicot, tells the story from the inside. The explosion upon discovering that this father whom she adored was drugging her mother, that he also had photos of her unconscious on his computer. The one who created the association “M’dordors pas”, to raise awareness about chemical submission, recounts her fears before the hearing of not “succeeding in hating him”, until the verdict which she does not find up to par . Rénald also followed the Mazan rape trial closely. He was unable to file a complaint against his attacker: when he felt the strength to take this step, his rapist had died. Katia quickly turned to justice. A photo of her unconscious was found in her attacker's phone. But the latter was acquitted, the court having considered that there remained a doubt.
-Our file on chemical submission
The reconstruction lens
Behind the diversity of these stories, they all tell of the same feeling of dispossession of their body and a slow reconstruction. Many say they hid these facts for a very long time, sometimes decades, from their loved ones. Out of shame, feelings of guilt, fear of causing pain… Like Rénald. His voice breaks when he confides that he discussed his rape for the first time with his mother during this documentary. “By telling him, I hurt him. She blames herself for not having done anything, but it's because I didn't say anything, show anything. This testimony allows me to close a chapter in my life. »
The documentary “Chemical submission: so that shame changes sides”, by Andrea Rawlins Gaston and Linda Bendali, will be broadcast this Tuesday on France at 9:10 p.m. It will be followed by a debate.
