The daughter of Gisèle Pelicot, Caroline Darian, is the narrator of a gripping documentary that chronicles the trial of the mass rape case involving her parents and sheds light on the use of drugs to commit sexual abuse.
Titled “Chemical Submission, May Shame Change Camp,” the documentary is produced by the award-winning Paris-based company CAPA (“Wagner, Putin’s Shadow Army”) and commissioned by French public broadcaster France Televisions. The feature-length documentary was written by Linda Bendali (“Crisis Cell”) and Andrea Rawlins Gaston. Bendali is directing, while Rawlins Gaston and Patrice Lorton are producing. Rawlins Gaston has directed many socially-engaged series and documentaries exploring issues such as incest, rape and harassment, including “Infrarouge” and “Inceste, Le dire et l’entendre.”
Darian became an activist after her life unraveled in November 2020 upon discovering that her beloved father, with whom she had a close relationship, had drugged and raped her mother along with dozens of strangers for over 10 years.
The case is still ongoing as French prosecutors have demanded prison sentences ranging from 4 to 20 years for the 51 men accused of participating in the repeated rape of Pelicot over a decade. The prosecution requested a 20-year sentence for her former husband, Dominique Pelicot, who admitted that he recruited strangers online to come to their home and rape his wife while she was sedated.
Darian took the stand during the trial, which stretched 10 weeks, and talked about her trauma when finding out that officers had also discovered a folder on her father’s computer named “ma fille à poil” (“my daughter naked”) containing photos of her asleep with the covers off and the lights on. Although her father was not charged with drugging or sexually abusing her, she suspects she was. “I realized right away I was drugged in that photo,” Darian said at the criminal court in Avignon, as reported by The New York Times.
She also wrote the book “Et j’ai cessé de t’appeler papa: Le livre sur l’affaire des viols et le procès de Mazan” (“And I stopped calling you dad: the book about the rapes and trial in Mazan”), which was published last year.
The documentary was initiated in 2023 and stems from Darian’s association “M’endors pas” (“Don’t put me to sleep”), which she created to fight against drugging.
“For 10 years, Dominique Pelicot drugged his wife, Gisèle Pelicot, to rape her and have her raped by dozens of men. The case has become emblematic of rape culture and male domination the world over. Starring Caroline Darian, the daughter of the perpetrator and victim, this film goes behind the scenes of this historic trial,” reads the synopsis.
The documentary also gives a voice to five victims of drugging, four women and one man, who stand up alongside Darian to “denounce this systemic modus operandi that has remained under the radar for too long… So that shame can change sides,” according to CAPA.
Earlier this week, Channel 5 announced a fast-turnaround documentary titled “The Pelicot Rape Case: A Town on Trial,” which will provide psychological, legal and cultural perspective on the case and an on-camera interview with one of the alleged rapists.
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