TF1 launches this evening the mini-series “The Disappeared of the Black Forest”, led by Hélène de Fougerolles, Grégory Fitoussi and Tchéky Karyo. A thriller against a backdrop of violence against women that multiplies the twists and turns.
What is it about ?
Near the Franco-German border, in the heart of the Black Forest and the binational military base, 12 bodies are found in a mass grave. All the victims are men, both French and German. This macabre discovery will come to revive memories that Camille Hartmann, an outstanding examining magistrate, believed to be buried.
Thursdays January 5 and 12 at 9:10 p.m. on TF1. 4 episodes seen out of 4.
Who is it with?
Two years after her departure from Balthazar, and before taking on the role of Sam from season 7, Hélène de Fougerolles returns to TF1 with Les Disparus de la Forêt Noire, a thriller in four episodes in which she plays Camille Hartmann, an investigating judge who has to deal with a fragile memory following an accident and who sees the gray areas of her past reappear through a particularly thorny investigation.
Facing her, viewers will find Grégory Fitoussi (Engrenages) and Tchéky Karyo (The Missing, Les Combattantes) in the roles of Franco-German police inspectors Erik Maes and Franz Agerland. But also Thierry Godard (Germinal), who lends his features to Marc, Camille’s husband.
A nice cast completed by Astrid Whettnall (Black Baron), Victoria Eber (Para//èles), Léo Mazo (Skam France, Les 7 vies de Léa), Natalia Dontcheva (Infidèle), Sébastien Libessart (Detectives), Bruno Wolkowitch ( Sam), Laëtitia Eïdo (The Absentee), Daniel Njo Lobé (The Code) and Mélanie Page (The School of Life).
Alessandro Clemenza / Banijay Studios France – Fiction’ Air / TF1
Well worth a look ?
Do not be fooled by its uninspired title: The Disappeared of the Black Forest is not a regional Saturday night thriller on autopilot as France 3 has served us for years.
Created by Stéphane Pannetier and Julien Vanlerenberghe, to whom we owe the superb Infiniti, and produced by Carole Della Valle and Nagui, this fast-paced mini-series is a real success, which should delight fans of the genre. And has a few surprises in store for them. The jury of the Cognac Polar Festival was not mistaken, since it awarded it the Grand Prize for the 2022 series last October.
A real thriller with drawers, The Disappeared of the Black Forest multiplies the revelations over its episodes and never really takes us where it awaits. Indeed, even if we quickly understand that this affair of the 12 bodies found in a mass grave in the heart of the Black Forest is intimately linked to the car accident which upset the life of judge Camille Hartmann a year earlier and made him lose his memory, the screenwriters are smart enough to accumulate false leads and play with our detective soul.
Far from her character of Hélène Bach in Balthazar or the sunny heroines she was able to embody in many comedies (romantic or not), Hélène de Fougerolles reveals herself to be touchingly truthful in the skin of Camille, this woman bruised and damaged by an accident of which she is unable to reconstruct the ins and outs.
Excellent in this much darker and more enigmatic register, Hélène de Fougerolles finds worthy partners in Grégory Fitoussi and Tchéky Karyo, who make up an efficient and rather atypical cop duo, from which emanates a welcome touch of humor in this ocean of darkness. . But also in playmates such as Astrid Whettnall, Natalia Dontcheva or the young Victoria Eber, very fair.
Because Les Disparus de la Forêt Noire is above all a series of women, which offers its actresses very beautiful roles which are revealed as the story unfolds.
Alessandro Clemenza / Banijay Studios France – Fiction’ Air / TF1
Sublimated by the magnificent natural settings that give the series its name, TF1’s new fiction event, dark and weighty as desired, owes a lot to its original concept, which has the gift of surprising us to the end. And ends up making female characters the centerpiece of the plot.
The third episode, which first appears to serve as a conclusion to the investigation, in fact completely reshuffles the cards and relaunches the story in a whole new direction. In such a way that the viewer almost has the feeling of watching another series when the fourth and last episode begins.
Already a very successful thriller against a backdrop of serial murders and revenge, The Disappeared of the Black Forest then mutates into a more political story and more than ever in tune with the times by seizing, in an unexpected and extremely strong way, on the subject of violence against women.
A very nice idea that gives rise to a final apotheosis that goes almost too fast, so many things are completed in the space of barely 52 minutes. But at least we never get bored. And the writers even have the luxury of a very last scene once again very surprising, which could almost open, again, to a completely different series in the event of season 2.