"Jorge Semprun was the screenwriter of Costa-Gavras' film Z. Z which means in Greek he is alive. For us, Jorge is alive, his memory and his work are alive! The important thing is the work of transmitting the memory... »
So says Laurent Bonsang, president of the Association of Friends of Jorge Semprun (AAJS) to celebrate the centenary of the birth of the Spanish author who wrote mainly in French and who was also Minister of Culture in his country from 1988 to 1991. Wednesday afternoon, a tribute was paid to him at the cemetery of Garentreville, where he was buried in 2011, 12 kilometers from Nemours.
Among the guests, the Spanish ambassador to UNESCO, the prefect of Seine-et-Marne, Lionel Beffre, the sub-prefect of Fontainebleau, Thierry Mailles, friends actors and directors...
Garentreville, June 7, 2023. The Spanish Ambassador to UNESCO (right) is greeted by Laure Gornès, the 1st deputy of Garentreville, and Laurent Bonsang, president of the association of the Friends of Jorge Semprun.
The life of this emblematic figure of anti-fascism has not been a long quiet river. At the beginning of Francoism in 1936, he fled Spain to France with his family, joined the Resistance during the 2nd World War and was deported to the Buchenwald camp. A passage in the antechamber of death that deeply marked the man and inspired his work. Then he continued to sail between France and Spain clandestinely until the end of the Franco regime.
Noï, Sirine, Isma, Ramõn, Adèle and Lucie, read words from the author
"He was a discreet and welcoming man. He came to Garentreville to rest and write. He appreciated the calm and simplicity of the village," says Laure Gornès, 1st deputy mayor of the commune.
Garentreville, June 7, 2023. The actor François Marthouret who appeared in "The Confession", by Costa-Gavras, scripted by Jorge Semprun, read an excerpt from the work of the Spanish author.
On Wednesday, actors François Marthouret - who starred in Costa-Gavras' "The Confession", scripted by Semprun - and Bernard Le Coq read excerpts from "L'Ecriture ou la vie". Their colleague Arnaud Appréderis preferred a beautiful excerpt from "The Autobiography of Federico Sanchez", pseudonym of Semprun when he was active in the Spanish Communist Party.
Also present is Franck Appréderis, director of the "Time of silence" and the documentary "Writing and life" screened Tuesday evening at the cinema L'Ermitage in Fontainebleau. With Semprun, he was co-writer of the film "Ah, c'était ça la vie!".
Semprun's tumultuous past, including his resistance to fascism through writing, is known to the young people of the Jacques-Amyot high school in Melun. They study it in history and Spanish class. On Wednesday, coached by teachers Julien Guérin and Fouzia Hossainy, six of them, Noï, Sirine, Isma, Ramõn, Adèle and Lucie, read words from the author about his vision of death, the French language, etc.
La Poste will issue a stamp bearing his likeness next November
"The big trip" marked me a lot," says Noï, a 1st year student, about this book where the author tells the story of the pile up of bodies in a wagon during his transfer to Buchenwald. His "pacifism" speaks to Sirine, also in 1st.
"I am very touched by this tribute. Its fundamental credo was the construction of a democratic Europe, the only way to avoid the return of the dictatorships that led to war," insists Jorge Semprun's nephew, Georges-Henri Soutou.
Created in 2012 after the death of the writer, the AAJS regularly organizes conferences and film debates in Seine-et-Marne and Paris. Michel Hiriart, the former mayor of Biriatou, a Basque village dear to Semprun, placed an urn containing soil from the commune in front of his grave.
For the centenary of his birth, the AAJS organized on December 9 in Melun a film-debate around "Z" by Costa-Gavras in the presence of the director. At his request, Swiss Post will issue a stamp bearing the effigy of Jorge Semprun next November.
