C'est la vie

There is a terminological void for those who have lost their child, these "orphans in reverse". C'est la vie walks this desert in search of a word, a hope, inviting two actors to bear witness to this unspeakable pain. A performance-experience-limit that hangs on the edge of delicacy.
As actors, everything seems to separate Daniel Kenigsberg, 61, and Fanny Catel, 37. But three years ago, each lost a child, a 25-year-old man and a 5-year-old girl. From that moment on, everything brought them together as people, including the acuity of those who have lived through such an earthquake that they know forever that there is a before and an after. Accompanied by two actors, literally playing the role of their lives, and his accomplices from the Zirlib collective, sound architect Nicolas Jorio and video artist Frédéric Hocké, Mohamed El Khatib has put together a practical guide for the living. Twisting the actor's question in the process - pretending in order to get closer to reality - he creates a tenuous piece, balancing between modesty and extreme proximity to the audience, which opens us up to what is covered by the Hebrew word Shakoul, "the bear from whom her cubs have been taken".