That Friday

On the evening of the terrorist attack on the Bataclan on 13 November 2015, Daniel Psenny, then a journalist for Le Monde, lived in a building next to the concert hall. As dozens of panicked people, some seriously injured, fled through the emergency exits of the concert hall he started instinctively filming with his mobile. When he realised the gravity of the situation, he went to help a wounded spectator in the street and was himself seriously wounded.

That evening, Daniel Psenny was at once observer, rescuer, victim and then miraculously saved. He was also a journalist with quick reflexes who took the only images at the time of the attack, which were broadcast and reposted everywhere. These images are a unique testimony to the terrorist madness of that night.

Who were those people in the images? Ten years later, what has become of them? Do they resent Daniel for filming and showing them at their most vulnerable?

We go with Psenny as he speaks to several of the survivors at length. This film, based on their conversations, is the story – a behindthe-scenes account – of the ‘big story’ of 13 November 2015. For the witnesses, it is also a work of remembrance that they want to leave to future generations. We highlight how these men and women reacted to an extraordinary situation in which their lives were directly threatened. In this kind of situation, the same existential question always arises: ”What would I have done?” These people know the answer.