Banksy and the girl from the Bataclan: the film aired on Rai5

A film about Banksy and the Bataclan on the occasion of the anniversary of the Bataclan massacre: in fact, on Wednesday, November 8 at 9:15 p.m., Rai 5 is showing the film Banksy and the Bataclan Girl. It was Nov. 13, 2015, when the Islamic-based terrorist attack carried out by an armed commando at the Bataclan theater in Paris, where a concert by the U.S. rock band Eagles of Death Metal was taking place. On that day, terrorists attacked the concert hall and other venues in the French capital (restaurants, bars, the Stade de France), and in the end 130 people were killed and 368 injured.

The film takes place just over three years after the events. It is January 26, 2019: hidden by darkness, some hooded men cut with a grinder the emergency exit of the Bataclan, the theater where only a few years earlier one of the cruelest terrorist massacres claimed by Isis in Europe took place. And it was on that door that the well-known street artist Banksy had created The Sad Girl, his tribute to the victims of the attack. The work seemed to disappear into thin air, causing anger and outrage for millions of Europeans. Then suddenly, in June 2020, an anonymous cottage in the province of Teramo is raided by Carabinieri from the Nucleo Tutela Patrimonio Culturale (Cultural Heritage Protection Unit): and the Bataclan door is there, wrapped as best they can in a sheet. Banksy’s work was found, the suspects were arrested, and on June 23, 2022, eight people were tried and sentenced to up to 2 years in prison. The court recalled that the theft was an outrage to the victims of the attacks and the heavy penalties for this type of crime.

The documentary, directed by Edoardo Anselmi, is produced by GA&A Productions and Guilhène Iop for Tinkerland, in co-production with ARTE G.E.I.E., RAI Cultura and Luce Cinecittà, in collaboration with RAI Teche and in association with RTS and RTBF, the film is written by the director with Claudio Centioni.

Interviewees in the documentary include the Commander of the French Judicial Police who was present the night of the Bataclan attacks, as well as one of the thieves of the Sad Girl, with the main suspect being the perpetrator of the theft. Italian interviewees include Carmelo Grasso, Commander of the Nucleo Tutela Patrimonio Culturale in Ancona until 2021, Emiliano Ferrante, the Carabinieri Brigadier who found the Sad Girl, but also an expert on street art and Banksy, a sociologist of street art and historian of urban architecture, a copyright lawyer, and the street art auctioneer of Artcurial in Paris.

There are many mysteries and contradictions surrounding Banksy, considered one of the leading exponents of street art, whose true identity still remains unknown. The British artist never exhibited himself, when the door was stolen, nor when it was found, in 2020. An artist who reveals little about himself and leaves room for the imagination of others to bring his character to life.

Banksy and the girl from the Bataclan: the film aired on Rai5

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