The Lost Boys of Mercury review – heartbreaking film on the enduring wounds of church-school abuse

Clémence Davigo’s uncompromising film gives voice to three survivors of a French correctional school, and the difficult path towards healingGreat courage, physical and moral, is shown by the three principal interviewees in this heartbreaking French documentary. André, Michel and Daniel are former wards of the church-run Belle Étoile correctional school in the Savoie town of Mercury and, now in their 60s and 70s, they recount a barrage of abuse at the hands of Abbot Garin and his lackeys: beatings that inflicted permanent damage, sleep deprivation, cold-water baths, starvation, nocturnal molestation.As director Clémence Davigo sits in on their long reminiscence sessions, the damage is clear. Michel weeps at the memory of his humiliations: deprived of a nurturing education, André became a career criminal, spending decades in prison; the alert-eyed Daniel, sexually abused and trapped in “hell”, speaks of later being emotionally crippled, unable to tell anyone he loves them. Michel and Daniel, an indefatigable chef and runner respectively, have found displacement activities, the means by which it is possible to empty their heads of the horror. Continue reading...

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Lily Allen adds extra West End Girl tour date for 2026: How to get tickets

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