“There is no one to tell you anything”: Michel de Robert talks about his childhood spent deep in the forest with his brother

His story is told in the film “Brothers”, which will be released in cinemas on Wednesday. Michel and his brother Patrice, abandoned by their parents as children, lived on their own in the forest for seven years. Franceinfo met one of the heroes who inspired this film.

Brothers, this is one of the films released on Wednesday, April 24 on the big screen, primarily a true story about two children from the period after the First World War. Two half-brothers: Michel and Patrice, aged 5 and 7, abandoned by their parents and who will live for seven years on their own in a forest in Charente-Maritime. A story about abandonment, about survival, but above all about the unique relationship that is created between them. Michel de Robert, the surviving brother, is now 80 years old and has agreed to tell this story to franceinfo.

During these seven years, they stole chickens, hunted rabbits, gathered wild fruits, and built a total of three huts. But in the end, those seven years spent in the forest, abandoned by everyone, and this very harsh school of life left Michel with quite happy memories today.

“Tops and branches 2.50 m long, you take out thorns, twist vines, make ropes. That’s what blackberries give you to eat. Blackberry shoots in spring are like asparagus. If you can’t go to the river, you climb trees, you have slingshots, you can shoot , you can run in fields with no one to tell you anything, but it’s great.”recalls Michel.

Unconditional love

But this life was not without difficulties. “On the other hand, in the 1950s, the winters were much colder than today. You fall asleep in each other’s arms because there is no other solution but to keep each other warm. Both of you. You don’t feel like saying ‘hold on.’I’ll warm you up’, it’s more important than that. It’s: ‘I’m holding you close to live'”Michel testifies.

After seven years spent in the forest, the two children were picked up by their mother, but she immediately sent them to a foster family who separated them. Without doubt the worst of all temptations. Everyone follows their own path. Michel becomes an architect, Patrice a doctor. But the eldest, unable to overcome his discomfort, will eventually kill himself, despite the support of the younger. “The love we developed as children and these brothers and sisters…”Michel begins.

“You have to understand that if I were to save him, I would leave absolutely everything. Everything. I would go to the end of the world.”

Michel de Robert

on Franceinfo

But “When Patrice killed himself, I couldn’t take itconfides. It was extremely difficult for me. The ambivalence of knowing ‘are you staying or going?’, ‘are you going to join him or are you staying here?’ I got a son, I stayed”he says.

But his brother was not completely gone. “Every year I go to the desert for ten days and spend ten days alone. But those ten days I am with him”admits Michel de Robert.