Two years ago, the series Sentinelsrenamed Sentinels-Malihad captivated us with its gripping story and its realistic description of the ordeals encountered by a section of French soldiers during Operation Barkhane.
With Sentinels-Ukraine, we take the same ones but we don't start again at all. It is February 2022, on the eve of the offensive launched against Ukraine by Russian forces. Captain Philippe Lefort (Yannick Choirat) is sent to Romania to secure the NATO border. Julien Ravalet (Louis Peres, the Lantier of the series Germinal) has become a spy for the DGSE and must help French nationals in Ukraine, while the confusion grows.
Our opinion: 4/5
Lieutenant Anaïs Collet (Pauline Parigot), still a soldier, is in the Donbass on a private basis, with her partner, to look for a baby as part of surrogacy (GPA). Other French people are there for the same reason, including a politician (Éric Caravaca), reluctant to make his presence here public.
The Russian invasion begins. The weapons speak. We must evacuate the GPA clinic. And here is the small troop, completed by several women about to give birth, joined by agent Ravalet, forced to cross a country in complete chaos, between on-edge Ukrainian soldiers, determined Russian forces, a disarmed population. All while avoiding the slightest misstep, otherwise it would be considered an act of war.
Lieutenant Anaïs Collet regains her military reflexes, causing the astonishment of her companion.
We must accept this chance bringing together the protagonists of season 1. But the careful writing (Frédéric Krivine and Thibault Valetoux) and the permanent tension prevail. Ultimately coherent to parallel the desire for life and the atmosphere of death, in a cold, snowy and hostile forest environment where we no longer know who represents salvation or the threat. From the front itself, we won't see much. Just the relentless flight of individuals who discover another nature, through obstacles and dilemmas. Lieutenant Collet regains his military reflexes, for example causing the astonishment of his companion.
A subplot on the petty trafficking of a trio of French soldiers seems weaker to us, but Sentinels-Ukrainedirected by Jean-Philippe Amar (HPI, Gears) will really keep you in suspense over its six episodes.
Six episodes, two every Tuesday on Ciné+ OCS, episodes 5 and 6 Tuesday November 12, from 8:50 p.m.
