Washington [US]: French actress Judith Chemla took to Instagram late Sunday night to publish images of injuries she said she incurred a year ago as a result of domestic abuse at the hands of her daughter’s father, whom she did not name.
According to Deadline, film director Yohan Manca, with whom Chemla was previously involved, was sentenced to an eight-month suspended jail sentence for domestic abuse against the actress in May.
But in the lengthy Instagram post, Chemla, a two-time Cesar nominee, wrote, “I have so much evidence that he continues to try and harm me… What must it take for him to leave me alone?” She later added, “I can’t stand it anymore. I demand peace. Is it clearer like this?”
View this post on Instagram
The post read, “A year ago my face was injured, blue, purple under my eye, I saw myself deformed. A year ago I looked at my face in the mirror and I knew that I could no longer hide my face.”
In the post, Chemla also refers to filing more than one complaint against the perpetrator and asks, “Should I go back to the police a third time? Filing a third complaint in a year? To be in the film industry and have the sword of Damocles of eight months of a suspended sentence, isn’t that enough?… Should I keep this to myself? He would continue to feel above the law… He will continue to believe he is able to pressure me and harass me morally.”
Chemla, whose credits include 2012’s Camille Rewinds, 2016’s Une Vie and recently released comedy Not My Type, also starred in My Brothers And I which ran in the 2021 Un Certain Regard section of Cannes. However, neither she nor the director, Manca, appeared for the official screening.
Variety stated at the time that Chemla had filed a police complaint against Manca in Paris’ 10th arrondissement after he reportedly hurled a cell phone at her in the street near Theatre du Rond-Point on July 3, 2021.
