What’s true and what’s false in Sambre: arrests, police, victims… France 2 series fact-check

For 6 episodes, Sambri’s mini-series told us about the long hunt “Sambri bullyA criminal who raped and sexually assaulted women in northern France for almost 30 years without ever being bothered by the police.

Adapted from a true story, the series is loosely inspired by Alice Gero’s research for her book. Sambre. News RadioscopyPublished in January 2023.

If the screenwriter was careful not to adapt the basic facts, he also made many changes out of respect for the victims of Dino Scala, who is still behind bars today. To summarize, Sambre has everything right and wrong at the same time.

The victim is not real

If Dino Scala had indeed assaulted fifty women between 1988 and 2018, the date of his arrest, none of the victims portrayed in Sambre really existed. Even Christine LaBotte, the character played by Alix Poisson, whose evolution we follow over these thirty years, is not real.

“Christine was inspired by all the sacrifices and not all at once“Alisa Gero explained. “It was very important to Mark Herpu and me that no victims were featured in the series. On the other hand, everything that happens to them, their reactions and feelings, we took it out of reality because that’s what we wanted to say..”

However, the character of Christine was of great importance to the two screenwriters, as it made it possible to emphasize the consequences of the rape.

“When we talk about rape, we often have a narrative that stops at that moment, so we were interested in Christine’s character, because we see this atrophied life that kind of stopped that morning by that river.“

There are literally hundreds of police officers

As with Dino Scala’s victims, the police officers, and more specifically Jean-Pierre (Julien Frisson), are also not based on real people. In fact there were hundreds of policemen and several police stations operating”Sambri bully“, but the writers had to reduce this number to make the series more understandable.

With the character of Jean-Pierre, Alice Garaud and Marc Herpu wanted to show that he was just a product of his time and that he evolved over time to finally help Commander Winkler in the final episodes.

“Through this character we show the evolution of police departments“, revealed Jean-Xavier de Lestrades, director of Sambre, before adding:Jean-Pierre is a bit like us.”

Commander Etienne Winkler, who plays a major role in the last two episodes of Sambri, did exist. But like each character at the center of the episodes, the authors preferred to distance themselves from the real hero of the story.

The judge, played by Pauline Parrigot, the mayor, played by Noemi Lvovsky (whose story has undergone some adjustments) and the geomath, played by Clemens Poesy, are also characters who really have an impact on the investigation, but their characteristics do not correspond to real people, the screenwriters sometimes have a little Altered reality to fit the needs of fiction.

Did Dino Scala get arrested like in the TV series?

According to the two screenwriters, the character of Enzo Salina is probably the one closest to reality, their goal is not to humanize the criminal. Although they changed some small, insignificant details, the essence of the character remains the same.

As for Dino Scala’s arrest, it happened as the series says. It was early morning, and while he had his semi-trailer blocked, the police decided to arrest him.

But unlike the series, one of Etienne Winkler’s colleagues, played by Sandra Perfect, is handcuffed, but an experienced inspector on the eve of retirement.

Commander Martins (played by Olivier Gourmand in the series) wanted to reward him for his involvement in tracking down the perpetrator and thus crown his exemplary career.

Catch the last two episodes of Sambre this Monday 27 November from 21:10 on France 2. The series is now fully available on the france.tv platform.