"Who shines in combat": the pain in the heart of Joséphine Japy

Unable to speak. At the end of the Special Screening of Who Shines in Combat , to thunderous applause, Joséphine Japy was overcome with emotion. She was just able to thank the festival audience for the welcome given to her first film, while her mother and sister were also in the room. Because it is indeed her family that the film is about. A clan, suddenly confronted with terrible adversity: the disability of Bertille, the youngest daughter, who suffers from a genetic disease whose symptoms are close to autism.

Everyone's daily life is obviously turned upside down, as much for a courageous mother (Mélanie Laurent) who devotes herself almost to the point of sacrifice to take care of her daughter, for a somewhat defeatist and overwhelmed father, as for Marion, the 17-year-old older sister, who becomes an adult very (too) quickly under the weight of the responsibilities assigned to her. But who must also think about emancipating herself, to forge her identity. The theme is dark, but its treatment is sunny. And not only because it was filmed on the Côte d'Azur, notably in Nice (the old town, the Prom', the Rialto cinema) and in the Gorges de l'Estéron.

"I finally shared a secret that I had kept well"

A heavenly setting, to bear witness to a situation that sometimes borders on hell? "My mother recently moved to the region, and I was interested in filming in this place that is both urban and close to nature. And then I said to myself, I'm going to have a lot of light, but in fact, it only rained! (in September and October, editor's note) Even the locals told me: "We're sorry, we haven't seen anything like this in fifteen years!" remembers Joséphine. There was a lot of wind, precipitation, it was crazy, and at the same time, it brought something strange: there were these beautiful facades, these colors, the sea and then also the wind, the rain, the clouds... It fits the film well!"

Between storms and clearings, the Roussier family holds the helm as best they can, searching for a more precise diagnosis for Bertille, while Marion experiments with love and sexuality. And if more than one viewer struggled to hold back a tear, it's precisely because the film never tries to force one out of them. With the sincerity of a new director, inspired by her own story.

"I feel like I've finally shared a secret that I'd kept well ," breathes Joséphine, who felt the urge to direct very early on since her film debut, "but I never thought I'd tell all that in a first film. Except that at 27, when a precise diagnosis was finally established on my sister's illness, I naturally started to write it. This diagnosis doesn't change her condition, but it changes her life."

To name the pain, to better endure it. With Who Shines in Combat for cathartic effect? ​​"Oh, you know, I've been to the shrink enough before. But I wouldn't have been able to make this film if I still had too much to deal with with my sister's illness and its consequences, otherwise it would have been too painful and tortured."

So that the "glass children" feel less alone

Pushed precipitously into adulthood, the woman she has become says she has "no message to convey. My only hope is to provoke emotions in people. I also hope that the film will touch brothers and sisters, that they will feel better understood. In particular the "glass children" ( a child made invisible in the face of a sister or brother with special needs, involuntarily relegated to the background, editor's note) , so that they feel less alone. I want to tell them that they also need to fulfill themselves, to give themselves time to live outside of all that."

A journey that Joséphine Japy has brilliantly accomplished, delighted to return to the Croisette where she was discovered with Respire , ten years ago . "It's fabulous, it's the continuation of many things because it was Mélanie Laurent, the director, who gave me a leading role and allowed me to make my first ascent of the steps, and today, the roles are nicely reversed."

Also a talented performer, Joséphine had already combined fiction and reality by playing Claude François's wife in Cloclo or Dominique Tapie in the Netflix series. With Who Shines in Combat , she truly touches the heart of the intimate.