What child hasn’t been dizzy thinking one day that the worst in his young life would be the disappearance of his father or his mother, or even of both his parents? Furtively, the happy child likes to caress the morbid hypothesis, just to give himself some shivers like reading a frightening tale. Then reassures himself in the softness of the family cocoon. But this classmate who casually writes “DCD” in the box “Father’s occupation” of the back-to-school form, how does he manage to transform the family drama into an insolent abbreviation? He doesn’t want to be the one we pity, the pitiful little victim. “I wanted to be a little apart but above all not to feel sorry for me”, explains Céline, who lost her father and her mother at the age of 8. For the little girl, an “orphan” is not her, that’s for sure. He’s the child of the Ddass that no one is raising. “But I can’t say that I had an unhappy childhood, I was pampered by my uncle and my aunt (…). There remains a flagrant lack, of course, but he does not see himself as such at that age. »
“This break has created a wave that pushes”
Growing up without the protection of both parents is no small thing. However, all the former little orphans met by the authors of this serious but playful film confirm it: each has become what he is because there was this rupture. “The moment I understand what happened to my parentsrecalls Jean-Philippe, a dozen roads are emerging in front of me and I know that I will have to choose one. » Very soon he feels “a rage to live, a flame, a ball of fury that (the) Safe “.
The sequel after the ad
With them, Louise, Jean-Pierre, Geoffrey and Alysia tell without taboo how they were engulfed with the greed of youth in the space of freedom left by the disappearance of one or both parents. “This break has created a wave that pushes”, sums up Jean-Pierre, who lost his mother at the age of 17. Now an adult, Geoffrey still addictively cherishes “this freedom tasted very young”. As for Alysia, both of her parents had to disappear “to let the adventure begin”. As children, they had known the worst. Only the best could happen to them…
Wednesday April 19 at 11 p.m. on France 2. Documentary by Blandine Grosjean and Delphine Dhilly (2020). 52 mins. (Available in replay on france.tv).
