You have a precise memory of where you were on November 13, 2015, and what you were doing when you learned of the attacks that bloodied Paris. This is the starting point of Spies of Terrorthe mini-series launched this Tuesday on M6. But the story told in the four episodes is much more unknown: the hunt for those responsible for jihadist attacks and their elimination in Syria and on French territory.
Five years ago, Franck Philippon, the creator of this mini-series, found material for a screenplay in the writings of journalist Matthieu Suc, an article on Mediapart and his book The Spies of Terror. If this well-documented work immerses the reader within the Amniyat, the secret services of Daesh, the intrigues, it approaches the subject through the point of view of agents of the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI) and the General Directorate of External Security (DGSE).
“We don't suspect the extent to which the secret services were on fire. We witness this interior kitchen. What interests me, as a spectator, is to learn everything that happened behind the hunt for the terrorists, how it was organized. We see that even things that seem the most insignificant are worth taking,” says Rachida Brakni, who plays a DGSE analyst.
For Franck Philippon, the objective is to “bring the viewer into a world about which he a priori knows nothing” and to “pay homage to the work of these agents who, on a daily basis, sacrifice their lives in a form of priesthood, with a total commitment and without recognition because they are people in the shadows.”
“On the ridge between documentary, fiction and realism”
The result is dense, with a consistent plot, a large number of protagonists and an abundance of technical terms. Ambitious ingredients for a mini-series “on the fine line between documentary, fiction and realism,” says producer Alexandre Boyer, broadcast on a general channel. M6 gave the green light, encouraged by the very good audiences recorded on its channel by the series Chernobyl in 2021, with nearly 4 million viewers watching each episode. This convinced her that there was an audience for this kind of demanding series.
“We asked ourselves the question of where to put the cursor between what we had to simplify educationally while remaining faithful to the fact that these agents have a language that we do not understand,” explains the director. In series like EMERGENCIES [pleine de termes médicaux]this does not pose a problem. We lose the viewer enough for him to say to himself that we are not kidding him and that he does not imagine that, because he understands everything, he could work at the DGSI. »
Protect sources
“We are not on an action film, we are talking about networks, sectors. If at times the audience – like the actors or ourselves in the writing – is a little lost, it doesn't matter, the main thing is to understand the issue of the episode”, supports Matthieu Suc, who participated in writing the screenplay. The journalist, who generally finds that “French fiction is catastrophic when it addresses the intelligence services”, believes on the other hand that The Spies of Terror “aims fairly well”.
“What we are saying is very close to reality. The DGSE and the DGSI read the script, there was no censorship on their part. Their desire was more to guide us in case we took the wrong route and to ensure that we did not put anyone in danger, assures Alexandre Boyer. Modifications were made to protect the sources and people that actually exist. This is the case of Minotaur, who currently lives under police protection. »
This character is inspired by several sources and in particular by one, which had a very important role in the post-November 13 period. “It made it possible to prevent two attacks,” specifies the journalist from Mediapart, who added the information concerning “Minotaure” in the recent reissue of his book in paperback from Harper Collins.
Neither “The Bureau of Legends” nor “Mission: Impossible”
To build the scenario, the teams were able to count on the expertise of Matthieu Suc, but also to discuss with agents and have access to minutes. Certain lines are also taken directly from the terrorists' hearings.
“It was important to us to show things as they happened,” insists director Rodolphe Tissot. For the scene of the arrest of Salah Abdeslam, the PVs speak of a red carpet with boxes of pizzas at the bottom of a cellar, well we filmed at the bottom of a cellar with a red carpet and boxes of pizza. pizzas. We are not working on plausibility, as can be The Legends Officebut reality. This is why the arrests are not that spectacular. The agents spend months of shadowing and listening, and the arrest happens in five minutes on a street corner. They are spectacular for what they say, but we don't do Mission : impossible. »
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