In the last two episodes of Sambre, broadcast this Monday, November 27 at 21:10 on France 2, we meet Commander Etienne Winkler, a police officer at the head of Lille’s judicial brigade, who succeeds thanks to his hard work. Enzo Salina should be caught and stopped once and for all.
As for the geomatician played by Clemens Poesy or the mayor played by Noemi Lvovsky, this main character of the investigation did exist, but he is the polar opposite of the commander, played by Olivier Gourmand.
Who is Frank Martins?
It was Frank Martins, who retired from the National Police for a year, who inspired this character in the mini-series Sambre. The policeman first heard about this attacker of women in 1996, when he was still a young recruit in the BRI (Brigade of Investigation and Intervention). His unit was effectively requisitioned to carry out surveillance around the factories in this sector.
It wasn’t until ten years later that Frank Martins, now head of the Lille Crime Squad’s first cold case cell, discovered the file, which was then deadlocked.
Together with his team, he takes over all the investigations and starts interviewing the victims. “When we heard them again, we saw a renewed hope in them. This gave us a great responsibility. We were waking up a sleeping monster, it shouldn’t be for nothing”Remembered Frank Martins at the microphone of our colleagues Parisian.
Then they were able to profile – it could be the handler – and DNA traces were found at the site of certain attacks. Unfortunately, this is not enough to find the dino scale.
A few years later, the cell was disbanded, but the commander kept this thorny case. In 2018, thanks to the help of the Belgian police, who detected a new attack, he finally managed to capture Dino Scala, one morning in February 2018.
“I have a wonderful role in the series“, he told our colleagues, before elaborating:But I wouldn’t stop Dino Scala alone. I benefited from the alignment of the planets and an extremely motivated team of which I was only the conductor.”
Over the years, two Lille PJ archivists actually patiently collected reports of assaults or rapes in France and Belgium that could be signed by the “Sambre Violent”.
The opposite character of the policeman
For the needs of fiction, Alice Gerault and Marc Herpu, the two screenwriters chose to create a character in complete opposition to Frank Martins, as explained by director Jean-Xavier de Lestrades.
“We couldn’t afford to keep anyone real because it’s too sensitive. And then we were not sure that reality offered us anything interesting. Everything Alice told me about Commander Martins was very interesting.”
“Therefore, we could have come closer to the real character because he is a very likable person, but we decided to create someone very far from him. Anyway, we got rid of the other characters, so we need to get rid of this one. From the moment we decide to fictionalize, we are fictionalizing everything.“
Consultant at HPI
It’s been four years since Frank Martins became a consultant at HPI, TF1’s flagship detective series starring Audrey Fleurot and Mehdi Nebibu. Thus, it helps the actress, as well as Marie Denarno, to create their characters. Mehdi Nebibu wanted to be credible and have the right gestures and dialogue.
So Frank Martins helped him create the character of Karadek. But after the first season, his role has evolved a lot, as he also helps the writers write episodes and investigations. He also made a small appearance in a Season 3 episode of HPI, in which he plays a prison guard.
Catch the last two episodes of Sambre this Monday 27 November from 21:10 on France 2. The mini-series is now fully available on the france.tv platform.
Source: Allocine
Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.
