Seven years after the’Bataclan attack, Sophie Parra, who was wounded twice in the leg by terrorist fire, recounts the’history of its reconstruction in After November 13. A moving comic strip written by Davy Mourier and drawn by Gery, angrily evoking the fate reserved for the victims, left behind by society and government in the months and years that followed.
For seven years, Sophie Parra has wanted to tell her story, disappointed by the treatment of the subject in the media: “Every year, around November 13,’was requested by the media and whenever’we M’called, the same questions arose: where were you? What’What happened to you that day? We were only talking about November 13. No one asked me how he was after.”
To tell the “crazy” that’she lived, she’is released recently, “now [qu’elle a] enough perspective on the situation”: “I wanted to explain to people the life of’a victim, because I got a lot of comments on social media, like ‘It’s been a long time, you’re alive’, ‘you have to think about something else’. j’I began to list a little of everything that’I have lived.”
“Do not traumatize readers”
This admirer of Pénélope Bagieu and Riad Sattouf was seduced by Gery’s “super sweet, very cute” style, which “makes you swallow the pill better”‘a particularly difficult story: “I didn’t want it to drip blood. The goal was to be able to m’to target as many people as possible, not to traumatize readers”.
The discrepancy between the simplicity of the style and the violence of the theme also reinforces the’emotion of his story. An emotion that overwhelms the reader especially when Sophie Parra evokes the memory of’a young man she exchanged glances with earlier’one of the terrorists shoots him.
In this sequence at the Bataclan, the characters’often do not have’eyes. “I saw it without wanting to see it,” he confesses about this young man. “The objective is’it was also that the Bataclan continues to be abstract, because’in the end what is’is past, this is not’It’s not the most important of comics,” he insists.
Even the two shots that wounded Sophie Parra were portrayed as unrealistically as possible, with a “Bread! Bread!” very cartoonish. “She sounds more like a firecracker,” she admits, “but’it was easier to make people understand than me’received two bullets ‘tac tac’ Kalashnikovs, which looked more realistic.”
“A year of snorkeling in the Bataclan”
In these sequences, the Bataclan looks gigantic. “vs’is a bit what I’He felt. When I’I was on the ground, everything seemed immense to me. The northern Bataclan’It’s not as big as Bercy, but from what I saw, it felt very small compared to the place. Gery did a really good job of conveying that sentiment.”
against’is also the subject of’album: the loneliness of the survivor before the heavy silence of the institutions. “The day I left the’hospital, us’I had already forgotten. against’it was a little, ‘Take flight little bird, we will not help you’.” His daily life is then a waking nightmare: “J’I was afraid of everything. There was a gust of wind, I’I was crying”.
L’drawing comics’it took place in parallel with the trial of the attacks. “vs’I spent a little bit of a year snorkeling in the Bataclan.” Every day she receives tables. She is impressed and moved to discover them. The’The effect is dizzying: “I relived certain situations, I laughed, I cried.”
Sophie Parra receives the final version of the comic, a few days after the verdict of the trial. A difficult period: “There were two great weekends’a bump, a bit of a bump.” And at the same time, he considers this 120-page book his “other baby”: “C’It was super satisfying and very painful.”
“Enjoy’have a quiet life”
Since the comic’s release in October, Sophie Parra has received a lot of positive reactions on social media. But the syndrome’impostor chasing her: “I am very proud and at the same time I tell myself that I do not deserve this. J’just told my story. I do not’He didn’t do much.”
With the end of the trial and the release of the comic strip, the sequel, “c’is to continue living and enjoying’have a somewhat quiet life,” he rejoices. He tries to “rebuild himself” by continuing to “do complicated things, like going to the movies.”‘she looks. “The last movie that’I saw it’I was the last duel etc.’it was good. She does it’there was no’firearm.”
The premiere in two months of three fictions inspired by November 13 (see paris again, November, You are not’you will not have my hate) No’It wasn’t easy “Yes J’they pampered me”, s’she amuses “But these are not movies that I’I want to see. I know what it is’has passed. me’has lived. the trial n’permitted’learn more about the’poll. and I do not’not necessarily need’have Jean Dujardin as a superhero”.
Reading comics is “so much easier” for her. “J”‘It costs me much less to get into a comic than into a book without an image”. She also planned to tell her story to her daughter one day, and read her the comic: “She is very curious. She recognizes the blanket. does something I know that’at some point I’ll have to re-read it for her. against’It’s my second baby, this comic, I’ll end up going back to it.”
After November 13, Sophie Parra, Davy Mourier (script), Gery (drawing), Delcourt, 120 pages, 15.95 euros.
Source: BFM TV
