God Can Defend Himself: A Public Interest Documentary (Review)
A look back at the trial of the January 2015 attacks with the common thread being the plea of Richard Malka, Charlie Hebdo’s lawyer. A poignant manifesto essential for secularism
In our world where one news story chases another, the duty of remembrance is becoming an increasingly vital element. Without necessarily having to go back very far. It is in this context that this documentary is set, which rhymes two long periods of time, those of justice and cinema, by returning to the trial of the January 2015 attacks which took place in 2020. An event that Isabelle Cottenceau seizes upon with the idea of placing it in the history of threats and pressures received by the weekly well before this disastrous month of January and with a real angle that even constitutes its backbone: the reading of his plea by Richard Malka, Charlie’s historical lawyer. The beauty and depth of this text are accompanied by welcome refreshments of memory which recall that years before LFI Danièle Obono claimed that she had not mourned Charlie, Jacques Chirac, then President in 2006, or Jean-Marc Ayrault, Prime Minister in 2012, had each in their own way denounced the needlessly provocative nature of the newspaper in their eyes. God can defend himself is a poignant and essential manifesto for freedom and secularism. Like a light in the dark times we are going through. And if we struggle to understand the director’s choice to add music that is as omnipresent as it is unbearable, nothing can damage the power and accuracy of Malka’s words, forced to live daily under protection for years. The terrifying price of freedom of tone.
Of Isabelle Cottenceau. Documentary. Duration 1h30. Released on August 7, 2024
