The trial that changed rape from misdemeanor to crime — and it actually happened.
21 August 1974. In Marseille, two Belgian tourists, Nicole and Malia, are savagely attacked and raped by three men. Their attackers claim that the women consented and are allowed to remain free. Though their friends and family advise them to forget the ordeal, Nicole and Malia instead decide to fight. Helped by their lawyer, Gisèle Halimi, they request that the attackers be judged at the assize court. On 8 May 1978, after a long battle, they finally obtain justice. A trial which made history as until then rape had been considered simply as a misdemeanor, whereas now it became a crime.
Acting
Clotilde Courau channels Halimi's ferocious courtroom precision.
Writing
Refuses easy catharsis — the victory is bureaucratic, not emotional.
Director
Alain Tasma
Clotilde Courau
Gisèle Halimi
Hippolyte Girardot
Président cour d’assises
Patrick Mille
Maître Collard
Yannick Choirat
Maître Tubiana
Sam Karmann
Professeur Minkovsky
Romane Bohringer
Arlette Laguiller
Pierre Andrau
Bruno Mancini
Stéphane Rideau
Pierre Mathieu
Camille Sansterre
Nicole
Patrick Catalifo
Emile Mancini
Satya Dusaugey
Gendarme
Nathanaël Maïni
Gendarme
Bérangère McNeese
Malia
Camille Damour
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The real 1978 trial made rape a crime rather than délit, but France didn't criminalize marital rape until 1994 — twenty more years.
Gisèle Halimi was already famous for defending Djamila Boupacha; this case cemented her as France's feminist legal architect before such a thing had a name.
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