France 3 is rebroadcasting this Thursday, April 20, the police TV movie “Fear on the base”, carried by Audrey Fleurot (“HPI”), Philippe Lefebvre and Cyril Descours. An investigation that plunges us into the heart of a military base in Brittany, without really getting us excited.
What is it about ?
On the Crozon military base in Brittany, the disappearance of a marine rifleman attracts the full attention of the gendarmes. After the discovery of the lifeless body of the young man, the investigator Odessa Berken plunges into the daily life of a regiment where secret defense takes on its full meaning.
Thursday April 20 at 9:10 p.m. on France 3
Who is it with?
Filmed in 2017, i.e. before the thundering success of the Bazaar of Charity and HPI, the detective television film Peur sur la base is carried by Audrey Fleurot, already very popular with the public at the time for her roles in Engrenages, Un Village français, Untouchables or Kaamelott, who here lends his features to the maritime policeman Odessa Berken.
Facing her, viewers will notably find Philippe Lefebvre (Sam, Make kids), Cyril Descours (Laëtitia, Complices), Charles Clément (Un Si Grand Soleil), Dimitri Storoge (Validated), Diouc Koma (Les Bracelets rouges), Samia Sassi (Julie Lescaut), and Zacharie Chasseriaud (Hippocrates).
REMY GRANDROQUES / 3rd Eye STORY / FTV
It’s worth checking out ?
Rebroadcast this evening on France 3, Peur sur la base, offered for the first time in 2018 on the air, should appeal to regulars of thrillers from La Trois since it takes up a good part of the codes of the regional collection “Meurtres à. ..”, with postcard settings (here Brest, its port and its Breton cliffs), a mysterious assassination, and secrets from the characters’ past.
The big difference is that the plot of this TV movie directed by Laurence Katrian (Murders in Lille, Please Investigate) is based on a single gendarme heroine, unlike the “Murders in…” which feature duos of investigators . But the originality stops there, as the screenplay written by Alexandra Deman with the collaboration of Laurence Katrian unfolds without any real surprises, despite some tense sequences and a cast in tune.
REMY GRANDROQUES / 3rd Eye STORY / FTV
As always, Audrey Fleurot is impeccable in the role of Odessa Berken, a maritime policeman with a fiery temperament who does not have her tongue in her pocket and who will have all the trouble in the world to investigate in the very closed environment of the army and the Crozon military base.
Especially since the case affects her personally since her younger brother, Nathan, camped by the always very fair Cyril Descours, soon finds himself suspected of the murder of Yassin Rhaled, a young officer found dead at the foot of the cliffs of the peninsula. Crozon Island. The opportunity for Odessa to dive back into the painful common past they share.
Despite its exploration of a closed universe where the law of silence reigns, and strong themes, such as sexual assault in the army and the mental health of soldiers, Fear on the base unfortunately struggles to be particularly breathless. Or to stand out from the lot of police fiction from France Télévisions. The fault of a scenario that stretches its story a little too long.
There are still pretty landscapes, convincing performances, the charisma of Audrey Fleurot, and the very pleasant duet she forms with Philippe Lefebvre, who embodies the story’s lawyer. Who also happens to be the man with whom the heroine shares a complicated relationship. Because in the ocean of darkness in which Odessa Berken is immersed, love also has its place, in small appreciable touches.