French public broadcaster France 2 “postponed” the release of a television film centered on the night of the Nov. 13, 2015 terror attacks in Paris. According to Deadline, the one-off drama titled Ce Soir-Là faced public opposition from the families and friends of victims. In 2015, 130 people died and hundreds were injured in a series of shootings and bomb blasts across France’s capital. Ce Soir-Là would be the first film incorporating those attacks, and that it's already in post-production edits.
In November, Claire Peltier created a Change.org petition asking France 2 and the president of its parent company, France Télévisions, to remove the project. Peltier lost her partner and father of her two children in the attacks that killed 89 people at the Bataclan concert venue that night. The petition is on the brink of 40,000 signatures. “We need silence, modesty, dignity, respect... and not a romanticized fiction intended to awaken the audience of your television channel,” Peltier wrote on her petition. “Can not you find other fictional subjects to attract your viewers, without rekindling our pain and mourning?”
The film is expected to be centered around a fictional romance between an Afghan man and a single mother who lives behind the Bataclan venue. The two, played by Sandrine Bonnaire and Simon Abkarian, meet as the they try and help survivors of the attacks.
In response to the outcry, France 2 shared a statement Friday afternoon announcing its decision to postpone production. “The film, which is still being edited, has not been seen by the channel’s management,” the statement read. “France 2 has made the decision to postpone this project until the production has widely consulted all victims’ associations.”
