France 2 is broadcasting “Les chatouilles” this Sunday, October 1, 2023, a film by and with the dancer and actress Andréa Bescond, who recounts the trauma linked to the rapes she suffered as a child.
The film not to be missed on the TV program this Sunday October 1 is, without a doubt, “Les chatouilles”, broadcast on France 2 at 9:10 p.m. Directed by Eric Metayer and Andréa Bescond, this feature film is inspired by the drama experienced by the latter, even if the main character does not bear her name. In this Drama, Odette, 9 years old, is the victim of rape by one of her parents’ friends without them realizing it. Having become an adult and a dancer, she fights against the consequences of this trauma.
“As soon as he could, this friend of my parents imposed ‘tickling’ sessions on me for several years, as he called it,” recalls Andréa Bescond at the microphone of Marie Claire. “When we slept at his house, he loved to penetrate me with his fingers when his sons and my brother were asleep. I must have buried all that, unconsciously, because I encountered him often afterwards. I knew he had me did something, but what? The memories started coming back when I had boyfriends.”
It was when she was 19 and she encountered her attacker in the street that she had a flash and remembered what she had suffered. Andréa Bescond tells World his “descent into hell” and plunged into drugs and alcohol: “I felt guilty for having been complicit in that […] As an adult, I blamed myself for it and made myself pay for it. For me, I was a whore, I was worthless, my body was worthless, I was stupid, mean, vicious.”
“Family denial is the second trauma after rape”
It was when she was 24 that the dancer and actress decided to file a complaint, when she learned that he was going to become a grandfather. Three years later, her attacker was sentenced to ten years in prison, having attacked other children. He ultimately spent seven years behind bars.
“The paradox is that part of my family questioned my story after the trial,” recalls Andréa Bescond, still speaking to Marie Claire, “even after having heard the confessions of my attacker, who asked for forgiveness. to my parents. Family denial is the second trauma after rape.”
From this crime and its consequences both on an intimate and family level, Andréa Bescond drew an autobiographical play, “The Dance of Anger”, written in 2014. Following the success of the play, it was adapted into a film, released in 2018 and today broadcast on France 2.