Did Minotaur, aka Said, really exist?

Tuesday November 19, M6 offers the last two episodes of Spies of Terror in which the character of Saïd, alias Minotaur, takes on importance. Did he really exist?

After the broadcast of the first two episodes of Spies of Terror last week, M6 offers the last two this Tuesday, November 19. Dense but captivating, the miniseries adapted from the last third of the eponymous book by journalist Mathieu Suc and played by Rachida Brakni, Fleur Geffrier (seen in Drops of God) and Pierre Perrier and Vincent Elbaz, highlights the in-depth investigation by French security intelligence services which led to the elimination of the sponsors of the November 13 attacks. Among the characters, Minotaur, the code name of Saïd, perfectly interpreted by Rachid Guellaz (seen in Valid) played an essential role.

The Spies of Terror : Did Saïd really exist?

“80% of the series is real and what is invented is credible”, assures Mathieu Suc, who collaborated in writing the screenplay. The rest was imagined for the purposes of narration, synthesis and for the sake of confidentiality and security. Even if, like the others, the character played by Rachid Guellaz is the result of several people, “Minotaur [le nom de code de Saïd, ndlr] is a special case, reveals Franck Philippon, met before the launch of the series. It is inspired by several sources, including one particularly important”, unlike agents who are not inspired by anyone in particular. “The character of Saïd should not have been identifiable, explains Mathieu Suc. We have muddied the waters, by relocating its history to Lille, among other things. But his relationship with his treating officer, played by Vincent Elbaz, went pretty much like in the series.”

The common points between The Spies of Terror et Sambre, the France 2 miniseries

During this meeting, Mathieu Suc revealed a funny anecdote concerning the filming of the series. “One day, I was sent an article from The Voice of the North which explained that there had been a panic in a district of Lille or on the outskirts of Lille, because people had heard gunshots in all directions. In reality, it was because on the one hand there was the filming of Spies of terror, and on the other that of Sambre [la minisérie de France 2 réalisée par Jean-Xavier de Lestrade également adaptée d’une histoire vraie, ndlr], fiction adapted from the book by Alice Géraud, the partner of Fabrice Arfi, my superior at Médiapart [et auteur D’argent et de sang, dont a été adaptée la série de Canal+, ndlr]. It made us laugh with Alice because we said to ourselves that we had managed to find each other on our two series which have nothing to do with each other.”