AUTOPSY OF A MASCULINIST CRIME

On January 29, 2020, Mélanie Ghione was savagely murdered with 80 stab wounds by her ex-partner, Youtuber Mickaël Philétas. This femicide, of rare violence, marked the climax of the radicalization of a man who had fallen into an extreme ideology combining misogyny and conspiracy on the web: masculinism.

Between an obsession with virility and a hatred of women, the role of masculinism in Mickaël Philétas' criminal act was at the heart of the debates during his trial. The film traces and deciphers the radicalization of an obscure social influencer, self-proclaimed “seduction coach” and “masculinity expert”, who ended up committing the irreparable.

This investigation offers a dialogue between Mickaël Philétas' 1,331 YouTube videos and Mélanie Ghione's Facebook posts, as if we were looking at the other side of the same coin. A dive into the meanders of social networks, accompanied by experts in masculinism, to understand this dangerous movement.