Claire Billet
Directing
Biography
Claire Billet is a writer and director interested in the consequences of conflicts and wars, particularly in Afghanistan, where she has worked since 2005. She collaborates with Arte, France TV, France 24, XXI magazine, Ouest-France, and others. She has won several awards, including the 2015 Mediterranean Short Film Prize and the 2016 Figra Grand Prix (under 40 minutes category). She was a freelance correspondent in Pakistan and then Afghanistan from 2007 to 2012. Since 2012, she has traveled the world telling the stories of women and men caught in the storms of history. She defines her work thus: "I spend time in conflict zones to immerse myself in personal stories that highlight the complexity and gray areas of war. The formats vary from documentary films to books, from long-form articles to audiovisual installations, depending on the narrative forms that interest me." » In 2015, she and Olivier Jobard directed "Like a Rain of Perfume," the clandestine odyssey of five young Afghan men seeking to reach an inaccessible Europe. Blending harsh realities and fantasies, successes and failures, to the frantic pace of constant uncertainty, their journey was shared for more than six months by directors Olivier Jobard and Claire Billet. Over the course of 12,000 kilometers, the viewer is invited to enter their private lives to better understand their concerns. They also produced an exhibition from it: "The Odyssey of Wandering." Her collaboration with Olivier Jobard, "You Will Be Swedish, My Daughter" (2017), is once again a documentary about exile: Ahmad and Jihane, a Syrian refugee couple, tell their youngest child, Sally, the story of their exile in Sweden. This was followed by several documentaries that deciphered the relentless spiral that led countries to sink into an inextricable powder keg: Afghanistan, Iran, the Central African Republic, and more. In 2025, she directed the documentary "Algérie sections armes spéciales" with historian Christophe Lafaye on a subject never before seen on television: the use of chemical weapons by the French army during the Algerian War. Combining military archives, testimonies from French and Algerian veterans, and the expertise of researchers, it reveals how these weapons were used to destroy the bases of the Algerian resistance as well as civilians in mountain caves.
Known For
On September 16, 2022, in Teheran, the murder by police of the young Mahsa Amini, arrested for "wearing a headscarf contrary to the law", sparked off an unprecedented insurrection. Within hours, a spontaneous movement formed around the rallying cry: "Woman, life, freedom". For the first time, women, joined by men and students, took the initiative and removed their veils, the hated symbol of the Islamic Republic. The Iranian population, from all regions and social categories, rose up in protest. Social networks went wild. The diaspora (between 5–8 million Iranians) took up the cause, and the whole world discovered the scale of this mobilization: could the theocratic regime be overthrown this time?
Woman, Life, Freedom: An Iranian Revolution
This documentary by director Claire Billet and historian Christophe Lafaye details the massive and systematic use of chemical weapons during the Algerian War. Algerian fighters and civilians, sheltering in caves, were gassed by "special weapons sections" of the French army. The gas identified on military documents is CN2D, whose widespread use forced insurgents to flee "treated" sites, at the risk of dying there. The method is reminiscent of the "enfumades" used by the French expeditionary force during the conquest of Algeria in the 19th century. Between 8,000 and 10,000 such operations are believed to have taken place on Algerian soil between 1956 and 1962. This historical aspect is little known due to the difficulty of accessing archives, many of which are still classified, raising questions about memory, historical truth, and justice.
Algeria, Special Weapons Sections
Egypt, nicknamed "the mother of the world" by its people, is unrecognizable. Gigantic construction sites have sprung up in the desert at an exponential rate, including roads, bridges, and megaprojects on the Mediterranean coast. This new Egypt is an illusion: in 10 years, the population has sunk into unprecedented poverty. The regime shows no mercy to the poor. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the new pharaoh, and his army have set up a pyramid-shaped financial system, built on subsidies from major international institutions—including the European Union—and foreign investment. The most populous nation in the Arab world finds itself on the brink of collapse.
El-Sisi: Egypt's New Pharaoh
No description available.
Des humanitaires sur le chemin d'Allah
After leaving his village at the age of 12 and traveling thousands of miles, a young Afghan immigrant works for years to build a new life in Paris.
Heart of Stone
Five Afghan men try to reach Europe. The filmmakers followed them for over six months, filming their clandestine journey and chronicling a migration combining fantasy and stark reality, setbacks and achievements, in the midst of the dangers of such trips.
Comme une pluie de parfum
When Russian troops invaded Ukraine in February 2022, classrooms fell silent. Soon, schools were destroyed by the relentless shelling. Almost a year on, classes have started again, and schools are being rebuilt with EU humanitarian support. In When I Grow Up three tenacious young Ukrainians resume their education despite the fighting. By giving them a voice, ‘Education, no matter what’ campaign documents their ambitions and courage in a country devastated by war. Ukraine is not the only country where access to quality education is disrupted, as this is the case for millions of children caught in many humanitarian crises around the world.
When I Grow Up
A short film produced for the European Commission's "Feeding Hope" campaign to raise awareness of the EU's crucial role in funding humanitarian aid operations.