“Season 1 of Pandora opened doors for us to meet whistleblowers”

“I don’t remember any negative reviews, or I’m in denial”she jokes. What if a few politicians were able to find certain elements from season 1?too Manichean”she doesn’t worry about it anymore. “We don’t care about their opinion… I didn’t expect another reaction from some people… It’s not surprising” confides the actress, also co-writer of this thriller with ever more psychological contours.

The success of Pandora goes far beyond the borders of Belgium. Proof that the political and legal themes addressed by the Belgian series concern citizens.

As The Truce et Public Enemy before it, the series had a good export run. Enough to surprise its trio of creators – Anne Coesens, Savina Dellicour and Vania Leturcq – in the face of the diversity of interested audiences, both in Northern and Southern Europe as well as in Canada or the United States…

“When we make a film, we really follow all the steps, we are aware of everything. It’s very different from making a series because it escapes us a littledetails Vania Leturcq. People told us that the series had been sold or broadcast in a certain country. Someone makes an Instagram comment, or we get an email from the United States saying ‘I just watched the whole series, it was great’ and we are surprised. In any case, I don’t feel like I suddenly understood that it was a success. People tell us ‘it’s great‘, but that’s all we know…”

“It was a nice surprisecontinues Savina Dellicour. We obviously hoped that this story, even if it is anchored in Belgium, would have a universal side. When we wrote it, we were indeed inspired by international news.” In 2016, when the trio began writing season 1, Trump and Brexit shook the international scene. “We wondered what would happen if this happened in Belgium. It’s quite nice to have confirmation that this problem of the race for voters – which makes politics seem, sometimes, to lack moral rigor – is something universal, unfortunately.” And looks like a kind of communications battle, as the series points out. “This is what means that, when we talk about it abroad, people are touched. Even in France, the theme seemed very topical to them, even though the series was released much later than here. The reviews received last year said that the subject was “at the heart of current affairs”, while we were afraid that the series was no longer completely in tune. But it still was, or even more so. : certain things that we had written, which we did not consider entirely plausible, have come to fruition in the meantime. It is a phenomenon that we have observed a lot and it was happening in the. news shortly after…

One example, among many others? The recovery of a dramatic news item, in this case a rape, by a political figure. “This was the case of Giorgia Meloni, in Italy… And this happened two years after she described it in the series.”

The reception of season 1 and current events partly guided the writing of season 2.

“We had the feeling that what worked in season 1 was talking about things that affected us, diving into current events, soaking up everything that was happeningexplains Vania Leturcq. We did the same thing for season 2: not to write for the people who were going to see the series, but about what revolts us, makes us want to spend so much time writing. We didn’t have a clear idea of ​​season 2 when we finished season 1. Everyone said to themselves: that could be it and, in the end, it wasn’t any of the subjects we had imagined. Because it is collective work. Pandora is the sum of what the three of us bring to the table and what is created when we digest it together.”

“Mixing current events and the theme of technology, hacking, surveillance capitalism, reflected the societal issues that we perceived around us”specifies Savina Dellicour.

But the three authors did not get there straight away. “We brainstormed for 2-3 months, we thought about lots of topicsdetails Vania Leturcq. I’m not going to mention things that we didn’t write, like in season 1, in fact. At one point, we felt that a story stood out from the rest, it brought us together and revolted us enough. And we felt capable of working on the subject. We do a lot of research to Pandorawe meet a lot of people and, sometimes, meeting a person turns out to be decisive. The figures of the whistleblowers interviewed touched us so much – we are not going to mention their names – that something remained anchored in us. We said to ourselves that we wanted to go towards this theme.”

Finding contacts in this environment was not necessarily easy at the start…

“That’s where the success of season 1 worked in our favor. Surprisingly, everyone we contacted had seen season 1 and was super positive about meeting us. Season 1 really opened doors for us to meet people and imagine season 2.”

“For a whistleblower, the fact that his word serves his cause is very importantunderlines Savina Dellicour. Sometimes, these are people who “heal” themselves through their action. Even if we obviously didn’t take up a single story like this, it nourished our thoughts on societal issues linked to technology.”

“A meeting with a whistleblower really had an impact on meconfide Vania Leturcq. We were in his living room with his really little daughters, smaller than my son. I was shocked to hear all the risks she had taken, to see the state it had put her in. When we asked him: why are you doing this? Why don’t you just choose comfort – your two kids, your relationship, peace and quiet – she answered us: ‘I’d rather have taken the risk of losing my job and many other things, but I can’t offer that world to my daughters.’ It really struck me that people are still driven by true convictions and say to themselves: too bad if I break my teeth, too bad if I suffer, because the general picture – what we give as value to the world – is more important than my comfort. It even became a line from Claire in the series”underlines the screenwriter.

“This courage, among the citizens, really moved uscontinues Savina Dellicour. We are always looking for a little engine: what will make us want to write and meet deadlines. These moments are extremely inspiring: people are ready to risk their safety to denounce unjust things. It’s super reassuring.”