Director defends filming scenes of a sexual nature with children for Cannes film

French director Catherine Corsini has defended filming scenes of a sexual nature with children for her new film Homecoming.

Corsini, who is a co-founder of the feminist organisation Collectif 50:50, will debut her new film at the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday (17 May).

However, the 66-year-old filmmaker has been at the centre of controversy after she failed to get government approval for a sexually suggestive scene involving two underage actors.

Speaking ahead of the film’s debut at Cannes, Corsini said that rumours about the scene – which was later cut from the film – were “crazy, completely out of control”.

The film follows Kheididja (Aïssatou Diallo Sagna), a Black woman in her 40s and her two daughters, Jessica (Suzy Bemba) and Farah (Esther Gohourou). The director described Homecoming as being “a film about these women’s emancipation, their sexual and romantic awakening”.

Corsini said that, while mistakes were made while filming the coming-of-age story, she had taken every effort to protect her young actors.

Denying the rumours, she added: “I’m hallucinating at things I’m reading, accusing me of having forced Esther to do a blowjob or masturbate herself.”

The scene in question involved actors Gohourou, 15, and Harold Orsini, 17, who plays her love interest. The scene was added to the script after the screenplay had been submitted, and therefore was unauthorised by the Commission des Enfants du Spectacle, a government-backed organisation intended to safeguard child actors.

Speaking to Variety, Corsini said that the scene took place at a house party, and while “it suggested something of a sexual nature, we didn’t show anything since the camera was centred on the faces”.

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According to the team behind the film, the scene was “played in a totally consented and fully simulated manner”, with no actual touching taking place and only the actors’ faces being filmed. Corsini said that she suggested the pair work with an intimacy coach, but the actors decided it wasn’t “necessary” as they were fully dressed and didn’t touch each other.

Cuties star Gohourou confirmed this, saying: “During the scene, they put us completely at ease and honestly since Harold and I had also worked together we were not uncomfortable.”

Rumours of alleged incidents on the set of Homecoming first emerged when it was announced that the film had been selected for Cannes.

The film festival held a subsequent investigation into the production, but found that there was no evidence and no formal complaints made about Corsini. Homecoming was officially accepted by Cannes 11 days later. Nonetheless, the French National Film Board cut their subsidies for the film.

Producer Élisabeth Perez claimed that the scene was not included in the screenplay due to an administrative error.

Corsini, meanwhile, said that she cut the final scene from the edit “to calm everyone down and especially so that people would stop bothering the actors”.