French actress Emmanuelle Béart was the victim of incest when she was a child, she said in a documentary presented Tuesday, without identifying her attacker.

Béart, who has appeared in dozens of films and television productions over the past 50 years, is the co-director of the documentary which was screened Tuesday at a press conference in Paris. It will be broadcast on M6 on September 24.

The 60-year-old actor has been famous in France for decades thanks to his performances in Spring Manon, A Heart in Winter and Nelly and Mr Arnaud, and won over global audiences with roles in Mission: Impossible and 8 Women. Béart won a César du cinéma for Spring Manon in 1986 and was nominated seven more times for France’s highest cinematic honor.

The attacker was not his father, famous singer Guy Béart, Anastasia Mikova, co-director of the documentary, told the press on Tuesday.

Speaking on behalf of the actor, who was not present, Mikova said Béart would not name his attacker because that is not “the film’s approach.” The incest began when Béart was 10 and continued until he was 14, she said.

The documentary, titled A Resounding Silence, includes the stories of four incest victims, as well as Béart’s own contribution.

In a video message played during the press conference, Béart said she had initially not wanted to talk about herself, but only about other victims of incest. “But their honesty and courage also made me want to speak out,” she said.

In the documentary, his voice is heard off-screen, addressing his attacker: “Since my father, my mother and my friends didn’t notice anything, you could do it again, and you did, for four years. »

She was “saved” by her grandmother, says Béart.

Some 160,000 children are victims of sexual assault each year in France, and 5.5 million French adults suffered sexual abuse during their childhood, according to Ciivise, a commission created by the government for the protection of victims of sexual assault. sexual abuse.