“We filmed at night, in the cold…” Frankie Wallach describes the intense filming conditions of the new France 2 fiction

France 2 offers this Wednesday, September 25 to discover On trialan original and particularly successful fiction about the “Fonctionnelle”, the elite unit of garbage collectors. And the filming was particularly intense…

Awarded at the last La Rochelle Fiction Festival, On trial (our opinion) immerses France 2 viewers this Wednesday, September 25, in the heart of the “Fonctionnelle”, a sort of elite unit of garbage collectors who intervene in certain exceptional cases such as demonstrations, accidents or in unusual situations. And to play the lead role, that of a single mother who joins the team, the production called on Frankie Wallachrecently seen in The Book of Solutions alongside Pierre Niney.

On trial : Was the unpublished fiction filmed in the real premises of the “Fonctionnelle”?

“It was written in a very dramatic way with lots of twists and turns.” confided the actress to our colleagues at Ouest France.”With Akim Isker, the director, we then made sure that it was never tearful, otherwise it would have been unbearable. It was our meeting with Aïcha, the woman whose life inspired this story, that pushed us to remove all self-pity. She told us her life story while crying but with a constant smile, repeating that everything was fine. That’s what we wanted to convey.“A poignant and striking fiction, the filming of which – which took place in the real premises – was not easy.

On trial : “We were filming at night, in the cold…“Frankie Wallach recounts the intense filming conditions of the new France 2 fiction

“There is only one building of the Fonctionnelle in Paris” explains the actress. “We couldn’t privatize the place or stop their service. So we filmed with them, often at night and in the cold, and we adapted to their schedules and constraints. It’s a lesson in humility… Personally, I got a bad back very quickly. While some extras would film with us at night and their working day. They never complained.“And to tell: “At La Fonctionnelle, you never know what you’re going to be called for. It can range from a demonstration to the evacuation of a migrant camp. The day before I arrived, they were sent to the scene of a tragedy, where a baby had been thrown out of a window… My first question to them was: how do you recover from that?“