This six-episode series fictionalises the story of the notorious French serial rapist who attacked more than 50 women and minors across three decades, in mostly the same location, in largely the same style. It is a sombre and often difficult watch. The knowledge that it took 30 years for the real culprit to be apprehended casts a long shadow over the storytelling here and leaves this dignified programme with a heavy weight to bear. Nevertheless, it proves itself to be as capable and persuasive as it is harrowing.
Each episode focuses on a different character with a fictional name. It opens with “Christine (The Victim)”, who is powerfully played by The Returned’s Alix Poisson. It is 1988 and Christine returns to consciousness on the banks of the Sambre, having been violently assaulted as she waited for an early bus to work. When she is taken to the police station by her sister, the horrors of the attack are compounded by the shocking, if not surprising, errors of the male officers to whom she reports the crime. Christine, still in the early stages of shock, recalls what has happened to her in precise detail. The camera lingers on her for what feels like a very long time, as she carefully answers the crude, insensitive questions of the bullish Capitaine Breton (Pasquale D’Inca). Placing the viewer mostly in Breton’s chair makes the contrast between his cold, unbothered reaction and what one would hope a modern audience’s understanding of the situation would be painful and stark.
