Release Date: 21/04/2022

The feature film we are preparing has a dual objective: documentary accuracy band cinematic grandeur. The guiding principle is to recreate the April 15 fire using archive footage taken that fateful night together with images no one was able to film as the tragedy unfolded, shot in huge sets rebuilt in replica.

We will deliver the excitement and emotion of silver-screen entertainment, buttressed by a historian’s exacting discipline. The film, shot in French, is intended for large screens around the world equipped with state-of-the-art image and sound technology. The narrative focuses on the 24 hours ending at sunrise on April 16. It retraces the challenge emergency services faced due to a delay in sounding the alert, as well as the struggle to get personnel and equipment through Paris rush-hour traffic and the throngs of onlookers. It continues with the firefighters’ perilous combat against a monster fire, over which—by the end of the night—expertise and bravery won out.

The fire in Notre-Dame not only shook the world, but it also enabled France, recently tormented by long months of doubt and fear, once again to be proud of the skill, coolheadedness and devotion of those who took part in rescuing the cathedral: its firefighters, of course, but also the police, architects, heritage curators, all of the agencies and professionals involved.