• International Women's Day takes place this Wednesday, March 8.
  • In France, more than eight in ten women (81%) have experienced sexual harassment in public places, according to a 2020 Ipsos survey.
  • France 2 broadcasts at 21:10 pm the first part of "Whistlers", a two-part miniseries carried by Nadia Farès and Charles Berling which denounces the street harassment suffered by women

A scene unfortunately too banal! Three student friends - Lila, Soso and Rebecca - are whistled by a group of guys as they get out of the pool. "When a guy pisses me off, I take a picture of him," Lila explains, pulling out her smartphone. She then swips the snap sur@LesSiffleurs, an Instagram account she created specifically to pin down nuisances.

On the occasion of International Women's Day, France 2 broadcasts this Wednesday at 21:10 Les Siffleurs, a two-part miniseries, carried by Nadia Farès and Charles Berling, which denounces the street harassment suffered by women.

Why is this thriller written and directed by Nathalie Marchak (Par Instinct), the second half of which is scheduled for March 15 and already available in full on france.tv, of public utility?


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On the way back from the pool, Lila (Ludmilla Makowski, seen in The Voice and Lupin), now alone and with her helmet screwed on her ears, is alpaguered by three lascars in a car. "Hey panther! Are you sucking me? " says one of them.

As she prepares to take a new photo, the situation escalates. One of the three men gets out of the car, pins it against a gate and threatens to rape it. The unexpected arrival of a police car makes the three men flee.

Lila managed to photograph the license plate of the car and went to the nearest police station to file a complaint. She is rebuffed by the police officer at the reception. Even Captain Marianne Kacem (Nadia Farès) believes that the student has been looking for him, unaware of walking alone in the streets in a miniskirt.

Many suspects

Lila takes refuge with her lifelong friend, Soso (Marion Delage), where she suffers the libidinous looks and gestures of her father (Charles Berling). Later that evening, while having karaoke fun with Soso and Rebecca (Sophie Breyer), Lila is sexually assaulted in the facility's restroom by a drunk customer.

The next day, the student's scooter is found damaged and her dress stained with blood in the trash can next door... The police are now obliged to take things seriously. With this Insta account where Lila posted the photos of those who harassed her in the street, it is to say if the suspects are numerous!

Under the guise of an effective thriller, Les Siffleurs points to a real societal problem: in France, more than eight out of ten women (81%) have already been victims of sexual harassment in public places, according to an Ipsos survey conducted in 2020.

The right not to be bothered

Moreover, this fiction skillfully confronts the generation of women who did not question being bothered with those who claim the right not to be. By staging this clash of generations, the miniseries feeds the reflection around sexual and gender-based violence in both the public and private spheres.

Cyberbullying, postpartum depression, consent, domestic violence... If the plot is sometimes scattered to its disadvantage, each character, from the police captain to the internalized misogyny played by Nadia Farès to the troubled character portrayed by Charles Berling, is confronted with his responsibilities and must make an examination of conscience. A reflection that opens the way to the deconstruction of the patriarchal patterns of our society.

  • Entertainment
  • Series
  • Harassment
  • Street
  • France 2
  • Women's Rights Day