The film “One Year, One Night,” to be released in France next Wednesday, is a powerful cinematic portrait of a couple of survivors of the jihadist attack at the Bataclan concert hall in Paris in November 2015. The film is inspired by a book by Spaniard Ramon Gonzalez (“Peace, Love, and Death Metal”), who attended the Eagles of Death Metal concert at the centrally located concert hall that night. The film begins immediately after the tragedy and follows Ramón and Cécile as they wander the streets of Paris with a survival blanket over their shoulders, dealing with the emotional and psychological trauma left by the experience. The film’s director, Spaniard Isaki Lacuesta, hesitated to shoot the film but decided to show the “after” and tell how the victims deal with their trauma in the hours, days, and weeks following the attack.
To avoid any morbidity, the film never shows the attackers or the bullet impacts. The main protagonist is a computer engineer and rock fan who suffers from anxiety attacks and questions his way of life, while his partner, an educator specializing in troubled teenagers, decides not to tell anyone that she is a survivor of the attack. The feature film is a reflection on how the victims deal with the emotional and psychological trauma left by the experience and how they rebuild their lives after the event. The main actors spoke in detail with the victims present during the filming to better understand their experiences.
“One Year, One Night” focuses on the part that was not seen in the media: how the victims go on, rebuild their lives, and do not give up music, love, sex, dancing, and collective experiences. The film is a duty of memory, and it is important to share and tell these stories. Actress Noémie Merlant noted that her character “denies what happened and continues to live helping others, but little by little she falls apart.” The film is a moving and honest portrayal of how people deal with trauma after a traumatic event and how they seek to rebuild their lives after a tragedy.