November 13: Attack on Paris

Heartbreaking. Well documented and having not only the testimony of the victims, also of the authorities like humans with feelings and fears. A healthy and truly sad point of view of almost all the victims (only the band didn't give a statement in the documentary)

Well not just about that - it is about human survival, it is about sacrifice and it is about decent people helping others in need. It is about shock and it is about disbelief and it is about what some of the people who survived remember of that fateful night. As mini series documentary this works quite nicely and makes sense overall.

There are a lot of people involved and you should find yourself feeling what those impacted felt too. It's not easy to watch as you can imagine and one can only hope this does not happen to anybody. Important documentary and really sad and life affirming at the same time

The events in Paris were just news stories to me, incomprehensible really, as I didn't know the places they happened, and news channels whilst no doubt they would have binged on an event like this, they move on so quickly to the next awful thing that there is no emotional impact and never a sense of the lives ruined and altered permanently.

In this three parter, there was no rushed moving on, and no "cat on a skateboard" at the end, before the weather a la TV news. Instead, there were everyday people who saw things that no one should see, and professionals who dealt with cascading crises such that they could never have expected, all described this terrible night with calm, grace and great humility.

The depth of emotion, the lyrical and insightful ways in which some of the survivors describe their experience really struck me, for example Valerie in Ep3 when she reflects on whether or not she would agree to having the memories removed from her consciousness, if this were possible. She said no, her reasons for saying no demonstrate to me why these people, and Paris operate in a different universe to the mindless killers that tried to take it from them.

I watch a lot of docuseries, especially war series, but none of them made me feel so speechless as this serie. It is a great witness report about the Paris attacks back in 2015. It shows us the true horror of radical Islam soldiers. The definition of hate is shown in this docuserie.

I would really recommend this serie, it won't let you untouched.

At this moment I finished this mini Tvserie on Netflix. And while I am typing this I smoke a cigarette because it feels so surreal to have seen this horror. My thoughts go out to the victims on this black day in the history of Paris.