Élisabeth Fanger (born 1956) is the French author of ''J'avais dix-huit ans'' ( en, I was 18), an autobiographical account of her adventures following her bank-robber boyfriend Sid Mohamed Badaoui on the run from Paris. The trip would lead them to Spain,

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

, and eventually

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

. Fanger's novel was made into the 2004

Benoît Jacquot Benoît Jacquot (; born 5 February 1947) is a French film director and screenwriter who has had a varied career in European cinema. Life and career Born in Paris, Jacquot began his career as assistant director of Marguerite Duras films, inclu ...

film ''

À tout de suite ''Right Now'' (french: À tout de suite) is a 2004 French film by director Benoît Jacquot. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. Plot In 1975, a young bourgeois woman falls in love with a bank robber. ...

'' (English translation of title: ''Right Away'').

Biography

Élisabeth Fanger, who went by Lili, was an attractive art student in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. The daughter of a wealthy French industrialist, she became bored of her bourgeoisie lifestyle. She met Sid Mohamed Badaoui ("Bada") at a bar on Paris's

Champs Élysées Champs may refer to: Music * The Champs, a U.S. instrumental music group * Champs (Brazilian band), a Brazilian boy band * Champs (British band), a British folk- and indie rock-influenced band * The Fucking Champs, a U.S. progressive heavy metal ...

in December 1974. Two months later, in February 1975, he called her explaining that he was on the run after a bank-robbery on Paris's Avenue de la République failed to go as planned, and resulted in a ten-hour hostage standoff that left a bank cashier and one of the robbers dead. Fanger gave Bada safe haven at her home, then fled the country with him, and with André Bellaïche (another man involved in the robbery), and Bellaïche's girlfriend. Relying on the money from the robbery, they fled to Spain, then to Morocco, Bada's original home. Their travels together ended, however, when Fanger was detained for questioning by

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

customs authorities in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

. Left without money, baggage, or friends, she struggled to survive alone in Greece. Upon returning to France, she faced criminal charges of aiding the fugitives, and was defended by

Robert Badinter Robert Badinter (; born 30 March 1928) is a French lawyer, politician and author who enacted the abolition of the death penalty in France in 1981, while serving as Minister of Justice under François Mitterrand. He has also served in high-leve ...

. Fanger was found guilty and sentenced to prison, but received a pardon. She published her autobiography ''J'avais dix-huit ans'' (I was 18) in 2004, and the book was made into the 2004

film ''

À Tout de Suite ''Right Now'' (french: À tout de suite) is a 2004 French film by director Benoît Jacquot. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. Plot In 1975, a young bourgeois woman falls in love with a bank robber. ...

'', starring

Isild Le Besco Isild Le Besco (born 22 November 1982) is a French actress and filmmaker. She is of French and Algerian descent on her mother's side, and Vietnamese and Breton on her father's. She has starred in many films, including ''Sade'' (2000), a French ...

as Lili. Fanger now lives in the south of France, and focuses on her two passions: psychoanalysis and inventions.

References

External links

J'avais 18 ans, at Amazon.frÉlizabeth Fanger's blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fanger, Elisabeth 1956 births Living people French women memoirists French memoirists Writers from Paris Recipients of French presidential pardons Big Brother (France) participants French people of Russian-Jewish descent

Biography

See also

References

External links