How Gen Z made ‘Scars We Love’ a phenomenon

Broadcast on Arte on 22 September, it is available on arte.tv and Courts Toujours, Arte’s Youtube channel dedicated to short films. By mid-December, it had racked up 253,000 and 1.2 million views respectively on these platforms.

On social media, an extract from the short film, posted on 5 October, garnered impressive results. On Arte’s TikToK account, it generated more than 2.7 million views, and on Arte’s Instagram account, 3.7 million. On Arte’s Facebook account, there were 400,000 views.

Raphaël Jouzeau tells EAJ : 

Following the arrival of the film on air and on digital, I received through my Instagram account a lot of messages from people telling me how touched they had been by the film.

Produced by Balade Sauvage Productions, Scars We Love focuses on the end of the love story between Gaspard and Leïla. After recently separating, they find themselves face to face again in a café to take stock of their lives and say goodbye for good. Through their conversation, we are allowed to journey through their past, relive their relationship and understand what led to their break up. 

Charlotte Vande Vyvre, Executive Producer at Balade Sauvage, comments: 

We loved Raphaël’s work straight away. He knows how to tell simple stories in a unique way, while opening up his heart.

Numidia Mokhbi, Social Creative/Content Producer at Arte France, explains the reasons for this success: 

‘Scars We Love’ is a short film with a strong narrative, with which the audience identified. There’s a great sincerity about it that really touched people. The beauty of the animation also moved people. 

The excerpt posted on the social media – showing Leïla declaiming a long, heart-rending tirade in which she expresses to Gaspard her pain at having seen him so introverted when they were together – played a crucial role. Mokhbi continues: 

The excerpt shook up communities which, for the most part, belong to Gen Z. This is the generation that shares content on a massive scale. It is this generation that has made ‘Scars We Love’ a viral phenomenon. 

Hélène Vayssières, Deputy Director of ARTE France’s cinema unit in charge of short and medium-length films and short comedy series, adds: 

Gen Z has no preconceptions about animation, unlike previous generations. For them, there’s nothing surprising about using animation to tell a story aimed at an adult audience.  

On TikTok, where Gen Z has a strong presence, the hashtag #LesBellesCicatrices (the short film’s French Title) and the nearly 950 videos linked to the film (reviews, people re-enacting Leïla’s tirade, etc.) have racked up more than 17 million views.

Mokhbi points out: 

Social media have grasped that short films are appealing contents for the audience. For instance, TikTok wants to give them more prominence.

Scars We Love, which cost €220,000, is Raphaël Jouzeau’s first professional short film. The young director explains:

Manufacturing took around 16 months. I directed the film in 2D. Sometimes, 2D is mixed with live action. 

Scars We Love premiered in May 2024 at the Cannes Film Festival, where it was in competition. It is continuing its festival run. It has already won several awards, including the Prix Emile-Reynaud 2024 for the best French short film of the year.