Mysteries on Mount Artee: How much does this social thriller cost a group of teens looking for ransom?

Captured by the judiciary, a dozen German teenagers released from all walks of life join a pilot program for reintegration into the wider outer world as an innovative alternative to imprisonment. Kim, Ron, Jessica, Ken, and others will have to spend eight weeks in the Alto Adige Alps, independently and without contact with the outside world, under the supervision of a team of guides and social workers led by dynamic Rebecca.

If the young people are not bad, the beginning of the mission will be difficult, between the provocations of some, distrust, violence or the silent nature of others. But while a small team set up the first night camp, tragedy turns the project into a nightmare.

Now the fugitives, the young people left with themselves, will have to organize themselves for survival. Before the research groups cross the mountain, Lars Celine, the psychologist behind the experiment and Rebecca’s companion, decides to start his own investigation: then he discovers that adults are in much more dangerous danger than they do not think …

Season 1 airs Thursday, May 26, at 8:55 p.m., at Arte. The episodes are fully available on Arte.tv until July 8th.

Watched episodes: 2/8

Created by Arne Nolting, Ian Martin Scharf, and Klaus Wolferstetter, who previously worked on the Netflix series Barbares, The Secret Mountain is run by a group of young German actors whose faces you can get to know.

Aaron Altaras, who you may have seen in the role of Robert in an orthodox film, slips into the skin of Can, the program’s annoying element. Marilyn Rose and Franz Hartwig, who respectively play Ron, a troubled teenager, and Lars Cellien, a psychologist behind the program, both appeared in Das Boot and Dark.

The young Kim’s translator, Emma Drogunova, meanwhile starred in the German TV series Tatort and also A case for two. The cast includes Verena Altenberger (M le Maudit), Maria Dragus (Mary Stewart: Queen of Scotland), Anand Batbileg Chuluunbatari and Rouven David Israel (Torture).

When a group of teenagers participate in a free and redemptive search for an experimental program of social reintegration that takes place in nature, we doubt that anything will go as planned.

The suspicious death of one of the supervisors takes them into a destructive spiral from which they are not found unharmed. Who is responsible for the murder? How are they going to escape from this? And first of all, what did the teens do to eliminate this program? La Montagne aux secrets will try to answer all these questions.

If the initial summary of the drama series is reminiscent of Yellowjackets (which tells the story of a group of teenage girls who get lost in the woods after a plane crash), or even a famous novel. His Majesty the Flies By William Golding, which was the subject of a plethora of adaptations on the small screen, La montagne aux secrets manages to stand out thanks to its unique narrative.

Each episode focuses on a fugitive band member and allows us to learn more about him and the particular things that brought him to this pilot program. If coming and going between the past and the present sometimes causes destabilization, especially in the first episode, we quickly get used to this rhythm, which, though very classic, still offers us a good dose of secrets.

The talents of the young actors who make up the actors in this thriller are also not outstanding. If they are less familiar in France, they already have a very good career in their country of origin and are able to bring these difficult characters to life. Emma Drogunova and Marilyn Rose, who play Kim and Ron respectively, steal the show and perform a duet that works wonders.

In short, Mountain of Secrets is an effective and addictive thriller based on well-built characters that manages to fascinate us very quickly thanks to the various mysteries revealed in the episodes.