L’Abandon film depicts final days of Samuel Paty

The new French film ‘L’Abandon’, directed by Vincent Garenq, reconstructs the final days of history teacher Samuel Paty. Based on the investigative book by journalist Stéphane Simon, the film depicts how a false claim regarding a classroom lesson involving Charlie Hebdo cartoons escalated into an online hate campaign that ultimately led to Paty’s murder.

In October 2020, Paty was attacked and killed in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine by Abdoullakh Anzorov, an 18-year-old extremist. The film explores the buildup of threats and the perceived lack of support from authorities and colleagues during the period preceding the attack. To respect the bereaved family, the director portrays the actual assault indirectly rather than through explicit imagery.