Service stolen on TF1: what is this fiction about sexual violence in the world of sport with Julie de Bona worth? – AlloCine

What is it about ?

For 30 years, Isabelle Demongeot, a young female tennis prodigy promised to a glorious future, has been silent. She revealed that she had been raped for 9 years by her tennis coach, aged 14 to 23. Without telling anyone. Never. Totally under the control of this man. It is in a doctor’s office, at the dawn of her forties, that the former French No. 2 in women’s tennis is suddenly caught up in her past. The question is asked: was she really the only one? Isabelle has always been convinced of this… but she needs to be clear about it.

She then launches headlong into the search for other potential victims. With the help of a gendarme, she managed to collect 25 testimonies, two of which were not prescribed. Then begins a race against the judicial clock in order to be able to make the truth triumph more than 20 years after the facts.

Monday November 22 at 9:05 pm on TF1 and already available on Salto.

Who is it with?

To camp Isabelle Demongeot, this tenniswoman victim of sexual violence, TF1 called on Julie de Bona, star of the channel who was particularly illustrated in Plan B, Peur sur le Lac and Le Bazar de la Charité.

Her former trainer, whom she accuses of rape, is played by Laurent Lucas (Les RevENTS, Le bureau des Légendes), while the gendarme in charge of the investigation is played by Samuel Labarthe, an actor with busy news since ‘he gave the reply last Friday to Line Renaud in Meurtres dans les trois vallées on France 3.

Florence Pernel, who plays Elisabeth Richard in the television series “Crime à”, and François Loriquet (Jules Beriot in Un Village Français) slip into the shoes of Isabelle’s parents. Delphine Chanéac, the unforgettable star of Laura, the summer saga of M6 broadcast in 2006, is back on the small screen in the role of one of the former victims of the trainer, who will help Isabelle in her quest of justice.

On the technical side, Jérome Foulon (The passage of desire) directed and wrote Service Volé with the help of Sophie Deschamps and Claire LeMaréchal.

Well worth a look ?

Adapted from the eponymous autobiographical book by Isabelle Demongeot published in 2007, Service Volé is an ambitious and moving fiction that tackles the very difficult theme of sexual violence in sports.

Carried by a brilliant Julie de Bona, who manages to make us feel the frustration that inhabits her character, this 90-minute TV film shows viewers the difficulty that victims encounter in making themselves heard, but also judgment and moral violence. that they must undergo when they decide to accuse a person appreciated by all.

Isabelle Demongeot and the 25 other victims must thus face the doubt of their peers and fight to hope for a semblance of justice.

If Service Volé focuses a lot on the victims’ words, and their fear of filing a complaint, the screenwriters have also chosen to highlight the reaction of the tenniswoman’s family, who learns late in the day of the violence to which their daughter was victim. . In their own way, they too have been destroyed by events. They face guilt and regret, and, like Isabelle, must try to rebuild themselves.

CHRISTOPHE CHEVALIN-TF1

If Service Volé shines in its sober treatment of this sensitive subject, the direction and the narration sometimes leave something to be desired. Some time ellipses are difficult to understand, and the flashbacks, sometimes disjointed, take us out of the story. Perhaps it would have been necessary to make a different montage, which would have incorporated these images at the time of the testimony of the victims?

Despite its few flaws, Service Volé remains a moving, upsetting and important TV movie that tackles a more topical theme than ever, at a time when 533 cases of sexual violence are being processed by the Ministry of Sports.

If this fiction, broadcast at prime time, will not allow the ex-tenniswoman to obtain justice, she may succeed in helping other victims who are now holed up in silence …