A few weeks ago, actor Tomer Sisley said goodbye to the character of Balthazar in the series of the same name. This Monday, March 20, it is in the skin of a completely different character that he returns to the small screen. This time he plays a gangster with a big heart in the TV movie Comme mon fils.

“A little boy abandoned by his mother crosses paths with a thug on the run who decides to take him with him. Between bank robberies, the threat of the police and the obligation to always be on the move, the man and child will learn to become father and son, to love each other and be inseparable…”, reveals the synopsis.

If this story seems totally out of the ordinary, it is nevertheless inspired by a very real news item. This is the moving story lived in the 80s by Jean-Marie Drouet and Ludovic Guittet, told in their book L’enfant en cavale, published in 2018 by Michel Lafon editions.

Now 42 years old, Ludovic confided in the Parisian about his particular childhood. “My biological mother left me at home. I was barely 2 years old. She decided to live her life without me,” he explains.

“We went on the run and there were a few robberies, especially at the start. Afterwards, he met Joëlle and it faded,” he says in the columns of Télé-Loisirs. With the Ile-de-France daily, he claims to keep the memories “of a happy, quiet childhood, with loving people”.

In the mid-1980s, Jean-Marie Drouet, whom Ludovic Guittet still calls “dad” today, was caught by the police and put in prison. How my son comes back to this incredible story that binds these two people.

For Tomer Sisley, embodying the character adapted from Jean-Marie Drouet was a real pressure. Especially the days when Ludovic Guittet was present on film sets.

“Ludovic, who is the son, I met him several times. He even came on the set and to tell you the truth, he even makes a silhouette in the film. It is also his daughter who appears during the first plan of the film”, explains the actor to Ciné Séries.

“His presence was a big pressure for me. I kept telling him ‘be careful, we are bound to betray your story and I’m so afraid that you will be disappointed’. But it was he who had the elegance of reassuring me.”, also reveals the former hero of Balthazar.

But for Ludovic Guittet, this film was a real upheaval.

After attending the filming, Ludovic Guittet was also able to watch the film before it was broadcast. “I saw it three times, and three times, I was overwhelmed with emotion. The film reminds me of a lot of things. It’s extraordinary, and, at the same time, this story also left me with certain traumas. About 70% of the book is brought to the image in the film, almost like a copy-and-paste. But it’s also a big pain not to be able to share all that with Jean-Marie because we started this project for two.”, he explained to Télé-Loisirs.

For his part, Tomer Sisley also has moving memories of watching the film alongside Ludovic Guittet. “He obviously came to the first screening when we discovered the film, and at the exit he had tears in his eyes and we hugged.”, he confided to Ciné Séries.