This documentary (2 x 55 min) directed by Hugues Nancy and co-produced by Nilaya Productions & France Télévisions offers a unique perspective on one of the darkest episodes in French history.

The director and his co-writer Adila Bennedjaï-Zou have devised an innovative device: placing a documentary camera in the heart of the 16th century. In this documentary fiction, Jean, a survivor of the 1572 massacre, conducts an investigation ten years after the events to understand the death of his family and thousands of Protestants.

To reconstruct the missing archives of the massacre, the creators chose a unique artistic approach, asking 3.0 Studio and Serge Elissalde to recreate animated archives of this wave of violence, favouring pen, Indian ink and wash, inspired by engravings of the period. This ‘hand-drawn’ animation technique makes it possible to recreate the symbolic and physical violence of the massacre while maintaining the necessary modesty. Here, drawing becomes a tool for memory and investigation, bearing witness to the mechanisms of religious hatred.