Documentary · 1973
Mururoa et Fangataufa
(Mururoa and Fangataufa)
In 1973 I filmed on the atolls of Mururoa and Fangataufa, at France's nuclear test site in the Pacific, at a time when the whole world was protesting against the tests.
By 1973 France's nuclear tests in the Pacific had become a worldwide issue. France was detonating its bombs in the atmosphere, above two Polynesian atolls, Mururoa and Fangataufa. Australia and New Zealand were taking it to the International Court of Justice. Protesters' sailing boats were heading for the exclusion zone. That is where I went to film.
I was then one of the anchors of "24 heures sur la Une". But I had not given up reporting in the field, and this was one of the most closed places on earth: two rings of coral lost more than a thousand kilometres from Tahiti, held by the military.
What the word war contains
I had seen war in Vietnam and Biafra, at eye level. At Mururoa I saw where its other face was being prepared, the one that fits inside a single explosion. I return to it in my 2026 book, in the chapter I devote to war: once you have seen all that, you no longer use the word lightly.
The following year France announced the end of atmospheric testing and the move to underground shots. My personal archives hold a few photographs from that shoot. I have not yet traced the film itself in the INA's online collections: the search goes on.
Key facts
- Filmed in French Polynesia, on the atolls of Mururoa and Fangataufa, in 1973.
- 1973: Australia and New Zealand take France to the International Court of Justice over the tests.
- 1974: the last French campaign of atmospheric tests.
- I recall this shoot in "Raz le bol de chez raz le bol" (2026).