Forsaken (French: L'Abandon) is a 2026 French biographical drama film directed by Vincent Garenq, co-written with Alexis Kebbas and Mickaëlle Paty, it's based on the nonfiction book "The Last Days of Samuel Paty" by Stéphane Simon. It stars Antoine Reinartz as Samuel Paty, and follows the last eleven days of the French teacher, who was attacked and killed by an Islamic fundamentalist in Paris in 2020.
The film had its world premiere out of competition of the 2026 Cannes Film Festival on 13 May, and was theatrically released in France by UGC on the same day.
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Premise
The film follows the last eleven days of Samuel Paty, a history and geography teacher, who was murdered with a knife and beheaded on his way home in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, Paris, on 16 October 2020, by a Chechen jihadist, after being defamed on social media by the father of a student for showing Charlie Hebdo's caricatures of Muhammad during a lesson on freedom of expression.
