EXCLUSIVE: Studio TF1 has boarded sales on Vincent Garenq’s Cannes-selected drama Forsaken (L’Abandon) revisiting the final 11 days of French school teacher Samuel Paty, whose murder triggered by a class on free speech shook France in 2020.
Antoine Reinartz (Beats Per Minute, Anatomy of a Fall) plays Paty in the drama which will debut Out of Competition in Cannes ahead its release by UGC Distribution in France on May 13.
He is joined in the cast by Emmanuelle Bercot (Standing Tall) as the school principal, as well as Nedjim Bouizzoul (Barbès, Little Algérie), Emma Boumali (The Good Teacher) and Azize Kabouche (Marseille).
Paty’s troubles began with a class he gave on free speech in early October 2020, in which he evoked the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris in 2015, in which 12 staff members of the satirical weekly newspaper were killed and another 11 injured.
Paty displayed controversial cartoons published by Charlie Hebdo showing the Islamic prophet Muhammad as part of his lesson, giving students the option to leave the classroom if they did not wish to see them. Several choose to leave.
The situation spiraled after a troubled pupil falsely claimed Paty had shown explicit caricatures of the prophet, even though she was absent that day. Her claims sparked a viral video by her father, which was amplified by a local Islamic activist who also leaked Paty’s personal information, setting an 18-year-old Chechen jihadist on his trail to the school gates.
“This is an important story that shook France and resonated around the world. There is no better place than Cannes to launch international sales for a film of such global relevance,” said Alice Damiani, EVP at Studio TF1.
“We are proud to launch it as part of a strong slate spanning both our in-house productions and a selection of titles we bring to the international market on behalf of partners such as UGC, Outside Films and Les Films du Kiosque.”
Paty’s death sent shockwaves across the country. In 2024, seven men and a woman were sentenced to prison for their roles in the hate and disinformation campaign against Paty which led to his murder.
“Drawing on the investigations and court proceedings and brought to life through Vincent Garenq’s talent, the film reveals with chilling clarity the chain of events that leads to tragedy,” said producing partners Outside Films and Les Films du Kiosque.
“It portrays a world moving forward blindly, powerless in the storm of social media, hurtling towards disaster, the triumph of falsehood over solidarity,” said producing partners Outside Films and Les Films du Kiosque.
Garenq has a track record in bringing real-life events to the big screen.
His previous films include Clearstream, about real-life journalist Denis Robert’s investigation into the operations of the titular Luxembourg finance house, and Kalinka, starring Daniel Auteuil as André Bamberski, who spent close to 30 years seeking to bring the killer of his 14-year-old daughter to justice.
