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Story of recruit who died at French elite army school made into film

Rachid Hami's film Pour la France tells the story of his brother Jallal Hami, 24, who drowned after officers ordered him and other new recruits to the elite military school Saint-Cyr to swim an icy lake in heavy gear during a midnight initiation 'exercise'.

La rédaction de Mediapart

This article is freely available.

A new film has thrown a spotlight on France’s elite military school, Saint-Cyr, more than a decade after a “testosterone fuelled” hazing ritual ended with the death of a brilliant army officer recruit, reports The Guardian.

Pour la France recounts the tragedy of Jallal Hami, 24, who drowned after officers ordered him and other new recruits to swim an icy lake in heavy gear during a midnight “exercise”.

The recruits entered the water to the sound of Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries – a nod to Francis Ford Coppola’s film Apocalypse Now – playing from a speaker. Several had to be dragged out of the water, but the organisers insisted a second group, including Hami, attempt the 50-metre crossing.

The film, selected for last September’s Venice film festival and released to positive reviews on Wednesday, was made by the dead man’s brother, the film director Rachid Hami, who said it was not a settling of scores.

“Everybody covered the story of my brother’s death as a news event, but nobody told the real story of the young man who was my brother,” Rachid said. “This is a cinematic project inspired by Jallal’s story, it’s not a documentary, which would have been a cliché.”

He added: “I had great difficult going back over what happened and had to let time pass to clear my head because you cannot make a film in anger and I wanted this to be a great film, not one about rage or fury.”

Read more of this report from The Guardian.