52′ | EN/FR | HD | 2023
May 1985. The small Bordeaux village of Teuillac celebrates its 100th birthday. The camcorder footage shows the mayor, Alain Pons, dressed as Santa Claus, handing out presents to the village children. He found a sack abandoned in the attic of one of the villagers.
At the bottom of it, letters and a school notebook with «Rachel» written on it. He asks the elders if anyone remembers this classmate, little «Rachel». Not a soul. Only one lady remembers that her grandfather cried one day and said: «Something terrible happened to Rachel». Alain Pons embarks on an incredible quest to find her.
From letters to photos, from municipal registers to prefectoral lists, from testimonies to travels, the mayor’s investigation will enable him to reconstruct Rachel’s story. It will finally reveal all its secrets in 2019, turning the life of the village and that of the mayor upside down. So much so that the village school will be renamed «Rachel Taytel School».
Director: Jérémie Saint-Jean
Producers: Premières Lignes
Broadcaster: France 3
