Available on Prime Video, the series “Ourika”, co-created by Booba, is inspired by a real affair, which had already been treated on the big screen.
Available since March 28 on Prime Video, Ourika is the new sensation in French fiction. Co-created by rapper Elie Yaffa alias Booba and Clément Godart, with Clément Gournay and Vincent L’Anthoën, this series tells the rise of a thug and a police officer, forever linked by a case that crosses borders.
Ourika counts on a trio of charismatic and energetic actors: Adam Bessa, seen in Tyler Rake and its sequel, but also Mosul and Harka; Noham Edje, seen in the series Bardot and the films Les Amandiers and An Affair of Honor; and Salim Kechiouche (La vie d’Adèle, Mektoub My Love, Lupine, L’Enfant du Paradis) and on the presence of Booba in a small role.
What is Ourika talking about?
2005, in a city in the Paris suburbs plagued by riots, the Jebli family reigns supreme over cannabis trafficking. While the neighborhoods are burning, a big narcotics raid blows up the clan.
Driss (Adam Bessa), the youngest son, is forced to take over the family business while he was destined for a career in finance. Facing him, William (Noham Edje), a novice and ambitious neighborhood cop, is determined to bring him down. Their meteoric parallel rise will change their destiny forever.
The incredible true story that inspired Ourika
You should know that the Ourika series is a joint idea of Booba and Clément Godart, who is a former drug police officer. The latter left the police but his desire to tell his story and that of his former colleagues on the fight against drug trafficking and the links between police officers and thugs was very strong.
Mika Cotellon – Prime Video
“The construction of this series also results from a desire to speak to people”Clément Godart explained to us in an interview, “We can’t imagine this scourge which is very universal today in the world. We fantasize about it a thousand times in real life or in films, but people don’t really know what’s behind the scenes. We want to explain this behind the scenes which is an integral part of our society today.”
He chose to draw inspiration from the François Thierry affair, former boss of the Central Office for the Repression of Illicit Drug Trafficking (OCRTIS, which has become the Anti-Narcotics Office aka OFAST since 2020) and the delivery methods monitored drug shipments.
François Thierry was a key figure in France’s war on drugs, often praised by authorities for his incredible results. But he found himself under fire for his murky methods, notably the choice of drug lord Sofiane Hambli as an informant.
The former top cop was accused of having opened the doors wide to the importation of drugs into France behind the backs of the magistrates and was indicted for complicity in drug trafficking and criminal conspiracy. The case, investigated by the Bordeaux public prosecutor’s office, is still ongoing, even if a dismissal of the case was requested at the end of last year.
Mika Cotellon – Prime Video
In 2017, Hubert Avoine, former undercover informant and investigator into the methods of the Narcotics Office, and journalist Emmanuel Fansten published the book The Departed which notably mentions the methods of OCRTIS. This work and the François Thierry affair inspired director Thierry de Peretti for his film Investigation into a State Scandal, with Pio Marmaï, Roschdy Zem and Vincent Lindon, released in 2021.
The story of two linked destinies
Marine Francou, the collection director and screenwriter of Ourika who became known in particular for her work on the essential fiction Engrenages, was immediately enthusiastic about this project and this affair which made it possible to tell two characters and two trajectories of closely linked lives:
“It’s explained in a very educational way throughout the episodes of the season and the series makes it romantic, but everything is very real. We put in the character of William this idea, with the complicity of his boss, of putting in places this monitored delivery system which is a method invented by OCRTIS.
And with the character of Driss Jebli, we make the link with the drug lord Sophiane Hambli whose armored truck with tons of cannabis was seized in front of her apartment on Boulevard Exelmans. Reality serves our dramaturgy since we sought to explore this dependence between the thug and the cop. That is to say, in this matter, they need each other.”
Mika Cotellon – Prime Video
Spectators will follow this “professional” relationship between William and Driss during the episodes, for better and especially for worse, as Marine Francou sums up well: “They went into a spiral that took them very far until it ended up being a bit of a blow in their face at the end of the season. But that’s what really happened.”.
With its two characters, Ourika is not only a muscular police thriller, it is also a family drama questioning identity, the future and the feeling of belonging, as Clément Godart wished:
“For both William and Driss, the question of family was important. Everyone has their own, the police for the first, and that of blood for the second. And in this whole story, several questions arise: what is your family? What is belonging? Where do you come from? Where are you going? What and who are you fighting against?”
The Ourika series is available on Prime Video.