Hot Picks: Samber

Acclaimed limited series Samber (aka Sambre) recounts the true story of the dozens of French women who were subjected to rape attacks in the same location over several decades. With the police failing to take their reports seriously, at least 54 women were assaulted before the culprit was caught.

The story first came to mainstream attention in a book by French journalist Alice Géraud. Samber, co-written by Géraud and Marc Herpoux, recounts the progression of the investigation, its repercussions from the 1980s through to 2018, and the beginning of the #MeToo era. Aired on France Télévisions at the end of 2023, it achieved record-breaking audiences (4 million per episode).

It was also well received by critics, with French newspaper Les Echos calling it “a disturbing yet essential series that shines a spotlight on the very slow response by society and institutions when it comes to sexual crimes”.

Federation Studios co-head of distribution Guillaume Pommier says: “Samber is directed by Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, who is probably best known for documentary series such as The Staircase and the Oscar-winning Murder On A Sunday Morning.

“Although the series has the feel of a true-crime thriller, Jean-Xavier and the production team didn’t approach it that way. For them, it was more about the massive failure of society and the system to protect women.”

De Lestrade says: “To tell the story of Samber is to address 30 years of failure in considering rape victims. It is to recount the gradual transformation of a society that took decades to acknowledge sexual crime is a plague. This is also a story of denial. When the police eventually recognised the gravity of the case, it was difficult for them to contemplate that the man they were hunting might be in front of their eyes.”

The assaults took place on the border between northern France and Belgium. Although the majority took place in France, eight occurred in Belgium – including the one that resulted in the capture of the perpetrator, Dino Scala. “The world of the story has something of the feel of Bron [The Bridge], with its proximity to the border,” says Pommier. “But this is more than a French or Belgian topic.”

French-language series have enjoyed a renaissance over the past two to three years, so Pommier is confident about the show’s prospects.

“We are dealing with a universal theme – the issue of violence against women – so I expect public broadcasters to see the public interest value of the series. But we are also having good conversations with streaming platforms, because Samber has the quality to sit comfortably in a premium pay environment.”

He says Samber is in tune with recent developments in the true-crime genre, with series like Ireland’s The Vanishing Triangle also exploring systemic failures in the state’s approach to protecting women.

“We are seeing more true-crime series that are sensitive to the deeper issues around violence against women. In fact, Jean-Xavier co-wrote a similar series called Laetitia, which explores the true story of an 18-year-old girl murdered in western France.”

The fact that the creative team has a documentary background gives the series an authentic tone, says Pommier. “They are trying to stay as close as possible to what really happened.”