After 3 years spent in Ukraine, the former director of the cinema Les Stars, in Boulogne-sur-Mer, returned to Pas-de-Calais to testify to the conflict.

“The sea is always complicit in major conflicts“. On the dyke of Portel, it is with a certain bitterness that Jacky Lebas looks at the horizon. The Boulonnais arrived last week in Pas-de-Calais for health problems. But despite the calm of the city port, he cannot find rest.”La English Channel distributed the Liberation to France, and the Black Sea, so calm and peaceful, is today the carrier of 14 ships pouring hell on Ukraine“, he observes, melancholy.

Invitation on the set of“The before JT” at 6:30 p.m. on France Nord Pas-de-Calais, Wednesday April 27, Jacky Lebas expresses his emotion at the momentum of solidarity that has developed in France.

The former director of the Les Stars cinema, in Boulogne-sur-Mer, took up residence three years ago in Zhytomyr, east of kyiv. His life, like that of many others, changed on February 24. Since then, he has documented the war in all its forms. From his work was born a 40-minute film, which he presented yesterday Thursday, April 28 in the Philippe-Noiret room at Le Portel, where he has his ties. “It could have been called ‘J’accuse’ because I denounce everything that this executioner does», Explains Jacky Lebas. No question for him to pronounce the name of Putin.It’s not a human being“, he advances.

Still at Portel, the media library exhibits photos of the former Boulogne elected official, taken before the start of the conflict. Portraits of Ukrainians, young and old, all with beaming smiles. “The smiles of the street… That’s what I want to keep from Ukraine, it’s the warm, joyful, colorful side of a completely calm country that lives to the rhythm of its Orthodox calendar.“, says Jacky Lebas.

In other photos, wheat fields as far as the eye can see, “it’s not the breadbasket of Europe for nothing!“He insists, nostalgic for a time not so long ago when, with the Ukrainian his quirks, he prepares the reserves for the winter.There, the land does not care about war. Between the rusting carcasses and the shattered sidewalks, there were the tulips sticking out.“Next to it, a show poster scheduled for February 26 soberly titled “The show that will not take place.”

From these trials, Jacky Lebas comes out grown. The eyes, hidden behind thick sunglasses, fog up several times. In his hands, a book written before the start of the war, “The Time”, lists among others the monuments of kyiv, Odessa, “mutilated today“. But the Boulonnais is convinced: after the destruction and the desolation, there will come a day “the time of renewal.“

For three weeks, Jacky Lebas will crisscross France to testify to his experience before returning to Ukraine on May 18. There, he decided to document the war in his own way and always camera in hand.