The trial of French director Christophe Ruggia, who is accused of sexually assaulting Portrait of a Lady on Fire actress Adèle Haenel when she was a minor, kicked off in Paris on Monday.
The two-day hearing comes five years after Haenel went public in 2019 with accusations against Ruggia in an interview with investigative website Mediapart, accusing him of sexually assaulting her as a teenager after he cast her in his 2002 feature The Devils.
She said Ruggia assaulted her over the course of three years, beginning with the shoot of the film in 2001, when she was 12 and he was 36, and continuing into the promotional and festival tour. Ruggia has denied the accusations.
Haenel arrived in court looking somber but determined. Female rights activists gathered outside, with placards bearing the slogan ‘Adele, On Te Croit’ (Adele We Believe you).
On taking to the stand for the first time, Ruggia was asked if he was able to give some sort of “reflection”.
The director replied that he had come to understand that the film was a painful experience for Haenel, but that his treatment of her had not differed from that of the other two child actors on the film.
The actress was due to take the stand towards the end of the first day of the hearing, which will continue into Tuesday.
The trial is seen as a landmark #MeToo case in France.
Haenel put her career on the line when she went public with her accusations against Ruggia. France had yet to embrace #MeToo and she received little open support from the local film industry at the time.
A few weeks after her accusations, she walked out of the 2020 César ceremony when Roman Polanski was announced as the winner of best director award for An Officer and A Spy.
The win was seen as a slap in the face for Haenel, given Polanski’s unresolved U.S. rape charge as well as several other sexual assault allegations against him, which he has denied.
Feminist activists protested the fact he was eligible for a nomination and picketed the ceremony. The César Academy has since changed eligibility rules.
In 2023, Haenel announced in an open letter that she was leaving the film industry because of its “general complacency” towards sexual predators.
The mood has since changed in France, in part due to popular actress Judith Godrèche’s decision to go public earlier this with allegations of sexual assault against Benoît Jacquot and Jacques Doillon, which sparked a fresh #MeToo wave in the country.
“It’s the end of a long road,” Haenel’s lawyer Anouck Michelin told franceinfo ahead of the trial’s kick-off “Her state of mind is that of a young woman who is tense, with the approach of this deadline, which is extremely personal, fundamental, and very important for her.”
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