An agreement was reached between the film’s producers on Friday. November and the lawyer of “Sonia”, the young woman who allowed the police to locate the leader of the commandos of November 13, 2015, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, we learned from the advice of the two parties.
“Sonia’s” attorney, Me Samia Maktouf, had assigned the producers of NovemberRecifilms and Chi-Fou-Mi productions, before the Paris court to ask them to clarify that their client, who now lives under a false identity, with the status of “protected witness”, was not wearing the Islamic veil like the one that appears in the film directed by Cédric Jiménez (north ferry).
At the end of the agreement, a banner will be issued before the credits indicating that “at the request of the interested party, it is specified that the use of the Islamic veil by the character of Samia Khelouf (who plays the character of “Sonia” in the film, note from the publisher) responds to a choice of fiction that does not reflect his personal convictions”.
“Some likelihood of confusion”
According to Me Maktouf, “Samia Khelouf’s character’s wearing of the Islamic veil exposed ‘Sonia’ to some risk of confusion in the public mind with the terrorist Hasna Aït Boulahcene. [cousine d’Abaaoud, NDLR] that had to be neutralized by the police”.
In telling the police where Abaaoud’s stash was, “Sonia” performed a “citizen and republican act” and not “an act of remorse and repentance by a person close to the ideas of the terrorists” as suggested in the film, highlighted Me Maktouf. .
The lawyer had initiated this summary procedure underlining that her client, “forced to live in anonymity”, “could not in any way publicly defend herself from any damage to her image and/or reputation”.
The film, presented at Cannes in May and starring Jean Dujardin and Sandrine Kiberlain, recounts the hunt for jihadists on November 13, 2015 after the attacks that killed 130 people in Paris and Saint-Denis. The film will hit theaters on October 5.
Source: BFM TV
