François Englert - Rebel and Nobel
Chantale Anciaux
2022 - 63 min - Video Full HD - Couleur - Belgique

"François Englert. Rebel and Nobel" reveals the unsuspected sides of a complex man first known to the media for his discovery of the missing link of matter in the universe. Considered by his peers as a visionary physicist, his inventive, radically dissenting and cheerfully insolent spirit enables him to invent the unthinkable and imagine the unusual.
In this documentary portrait, François Englert begins to tell how physics has transformed both his life and our conception of the world. Nothing less! His boson, a particle that arose out of a vacuum, would be the conductor of the universe. It may help explain phenomena as fabulous as anti-matter, parallel universes, black holes... After 50 years of silence on his discovery, the Nobel Prize comes to crown the life of a free and rebellious researcher.
In Stockholm, François Englert playfully complies with the folklore of the ceremony, in the presence of the crowned heads and his family. But, in spite of the honours, the successes and the prizes, he remains fundamentally anxious, an introvert crossed by doubts.
Child hidden during the 1939-45 war, François Englert learned well to lie and to conceal his identity. He had locked his memory well. But he found himself caught up in what is known as the "delayed effect" when he felt the need to return to the places of his childhood buried in secrecy. He began to show his infinite gratitude to the Righteous who saved his life: "They are part of me," he said, "like my parents, I owe them what I have become. I would like to kiss them all".