Sambre on France 2: Reality isn’t quite respected in episode 3

The mini-series Sambre, which will air two new episodes this Monday from 21:10 on France 2, is a TV adaptation of the news that shocked the people of northern France.

For 30 years, the man, nicknamed the “Sambre Rapist”, raped and assaulted dozens of women without concern. Only in 2018 was the culprit finally arrested.

Through the story of Dino Scala, famous for Enzo Salina’s needs, director Jean-Xavier de Lestrades and screenwriters Alice Gerault and Marc Herpu wanted to tell the story of thirty years of failure in the care of rape victims and show the evolution. Justice, which is still struggling to curb sexist and sexual violence today.

Loosely adapted from Alice Gero’s Investigations, Sambre. News RadioscopyReleased in January 2023, Sambre tries to be as close to reality as possible. But for the purposes of fiction, screenwriters sometimes needed to escape from reality, to protect the victim, but also for consistency.

deviation from reality

“All key elements of the case are preserved“, explained Jean-Xavier de Lestrades during a press event to promote Sambre. “But for the characters, we had to get away from reality, especially with the victims, because they didn’t recognize themselves.”

So they wrote their characters based on real people, but they made up their personalities. The aim of the authors and the director was not to offer a documentary to France 2 viewers.

To adapt reality to the different characters and episodes of the series, the authors sometimes resort to small adjustments, as happened in episode 3, which was broadcast this Monday at 9:10 pm on France 2.

In this episode, we follow the mayor of the small industrial town of Sambri, played by Noemi Lvovsky, who decides to break the silence about a rape in her town. Events that take place in 2003 contrary to reality in the series.

“Working on Sambre required an adjustment effort– explained Jean-Xavier de Lestrade. “For example, in the DNA scene in episode 3, we had to take it to the end of 2003.”

Indeed, Sarkozy’s internal security law, one of whose articles expanded the criteria for registering people in a national automated genetic fingerprint file, was passed in 2003.

Thanks to this law, the DNA database, which until now only recorded the genetic profiles of people with strong convictions, expanded the list to include suspects or even witnesses to crimes.

This data is important because in episode 3, Enzo Salina misses having his DNA taken after a conflict with a neighbor.

“We had to adapt. We moved the episode time a bit to end with that. The events with Mary are a bit earlier in the timeline“- added the director.

“It still sometimes requires a little movement, but at the same time, everything is consistent and we don’t betray anything. And still not very important. Whether it’s 6 months later or 6 months before, basically we’re history.”

Watch two new episodes of Sambre this Monday 20 November from 21:10 on France 2. The mini-series is now fully available on the france.tv platform.