Laure Calamy Stars as Devoted Friend: What Happened to the Real Bataclan Mythomaniac?

In “A Devoted Friend,” currently streaming its first two episodes on HBO Max, Laure Calamy stars as Chris, a woman who for several years pretends to be one of the victims of the terrorist attacks on November 13, 2015.

As unbelievable as it may sound, this four-episode miniseries is adapted from Alexandre Kauffmann’s investigative book titled The Bataclan Mythomaniac.

Who Was the Real Chris?

Known as Christelle, or Chris, in “A Devoted Friend,” her real name was Florence M., and she was known to many victims under the online pseudonym “Flo Kitty.”

Shortly after the attacks that shook France, she reached out to survivors on social media, deceiving them into believing she had a friend who had been injured at the Bataclan.

She quickly became a confidante to many victims and eventually got a job at a victims’ association, Life for Paris. There, she even managed to expose several impostors claiming to be victims.

Meanwhile, she posed as a survivor to the Guarantee Fund for Victims of Acts of Terrorism to claim compensation. She used all the testimonies she had gathered to fabricate her own story.

She even went as far as obtaining a concert ticket for the Eagles of Death Metal from a victim in the association to use as proof of her good faith. She thereby secured €25,000 from the Guarantee Fund and over €13,000 from Health Insurance.

What Became of the Real Bataclan Mythomaniac?

However, Florence’s elaborate deceit was eventually uncovered. In March 2018, she was sentenced to four and a half years in prison by the Créteil court.

And the woman in her fifties was not new to legal troubles, having been convicted three times before for fraud and was under surveillance with an electronic monitoring bracelet.

“I think she was a very lonely woman, a victim of her solitude and her past,” Alexandre Kauffmann revealed in an interview at the time of his book’s release.

“Her Facebook account, which I had access to, is a dive into that loneliness. Unlike other fake victims who lied for purely venal reasons, Florence M. needed to socialize.”

“And when one is a victim of such an event, one is no longer just oneself, one is no longer an isolated person, but becomes a symbol, a part of France, a collective piece. I think that’s what drove her to act.” Now released from prison, Florence M. has vanished from the public eye.

Catch the first two episodes of “A Devoted Friend” this Friday, October 18 on Max. Subsequent episodes will be released weekly.