With its transparent mask, «it looks like Darth Vader». Without this protection, the scars of Jade still fresh on the face might worsen. The young mother emerging from a long period of hospitalization. She received a jet of acid during a dispute with his former spouse. The accident was disfigured for life. He’ll have to learn to live with this difference. To reconstruct an image.
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In life, these indelible marks belong to Vicky Knight. They are the scars of a fire that burned a third of his skin at the age of 7 years. Today, the actress made her debut on screen in the feature-length film of Sacha Polak, where she holds the principal role. A beautiful story of initiation, at once realistic and poetic, on the acceptance of self that highlights a struggle little known to the general public: the struggle of the burn.
the origin of this «dirty god», there is the encounter between Polak and a young woman, burnt in the face, cross at a music festival. «We do not forget, such as scars, explains the director during the premiere of the film in Paris in early June. This girl must live in confronting the gaze of the people who stare all day.»
cathartic Experience For Vicky Knight, the experience of «Dirty God» was cathartic. The Jokers
Fascinated by the scars of Knight, Polak films her body as a work of art Without ever lapsing into voyeurism. Even during sex scenes. «For any actress, it is difficult to get naked in front of a camera and masturbating, so imagine for an aspiring actress, and great burnt,» admits the actress of 23 years. But Sacha was there to direct me. We have tried to make the experience funny.»
She admits it willingly, the experience has been cathartic. «Ash saved my life by offering me this role,» says the actress novice, explaining they «had to relive difficult moments» of his life, such as harassment. «I stopped counting the number of times I was called Freddy Krueger», explained to the Guardian last month.
first, there are the looks. And then the mockery. Laurent Gaudens, well known. Nearly two-thirds of the body of this young fifty-year-old was burned while he was only 4 years old. President of the association of Burns and Smiles and founder of the institute of beauty and skincare Dulcenae, he hoped that Dirty God may show a different face burn. «There are 400,000 to victims of burns in France and 10,000 hospitalizations each year, of which no one speaks almost not regret it. My first hope is that the film is the cause from the general public.»
«You’re scaring the children»
For him, it is necessary to raise awareness to avoid blunders. Laurent recalls the testimony of a member of his association, to which the lifeguard of the local swimming pool would have been asked not to come back, «to not scare the children.» Difficult to go out in public after such an experience. Because, when there is large fire, it is necessary to manage the gaze of others, but also to accept their own point of view.
In total, Lawrence has listed ten fights for which he is campaigning with Burns and Smiles: rebuild the self-image, find health professionals who are trained to fight against the social rejection… «I have found many of my struggles in Dirty God , he explains. First, there is the gaze of the main character of his own body. Then, the gaze of the other. The difficulty of finding a health-care professional. The romantic relationships. The legal management.»
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To this must be added the discrimination at work, and the coldness of the administration. Laurent tells the story of this man who has lost all his papers in a fire. And that, coming out of the hospital six months later, faced a bureaucracy kafkaesque. «To the bank, it was explained that it was impossible to make him a blue card without a piece of identity, even if it had burned in a fire,» says Laurent. However, the time to reconstruct his or her identity card had several months…»
the way of The cross burn is crooked. On the website of his association, Laurent task to realize with the help of shorts of awareness, such as the story of the man who does not leave his home only once a year, on Halloween night, melting into the mass in the middle of the costumes of Freddy Krueger, Darth Vader or Double-Sided. He hoped that Dirty God meeting a success, in the dining room. Before concluding: «people should understand that we are not monsters.»
