A film directed by a graduate of the Master's program in Creative Documentary, airing on ARTE TV

"The Forgotten Ones of La Belle Étoile: When Schools Fail"
Student Life, Engagement
A film directed by Clémence Davigo, a graduate of the Creative Documentary Master’s program at the UFR LLASIC ofUniversité Grenoble Alpes.

Synopsis 

"After a lifetime of silence, former residents of the Belle Étoile Catholic reformatory in Savoie are finally speaking out about the abuse they endured there. A chilling account, on the path to healing."
Michel, Daniel, and the two Andrés were children in the 1950s and 1960s. As residents of the Belle Étoile Catholic reformatory for young boys in Mercury, near Albertville in Savoie, they lived there for years under a regime of terror, without even knowing why they had been placed there. Under the authority of the untouchable Father Guérin, they were beaten, humiliated, starved, and deprived of water on a daily basis—to the point of having to scavenge for thistles and rotten apples under the snow or drink water from rivers. Some of them were victims of sexual abuse committed by men of the Church; others suffered acts of torture that left them with permanent physical scars. After a lifetime of silence, these former child martyrs, now in their seventies, are finally daring to speak out and seek redress from religious institutions."

Watch the film on ARTE TV 

Updated on March 27, 2026