France 2 is broadcasting this Monday evening the last two episodes of “Sambre”, a mini-series adapted from a news item. On this occasion, find out what is true and what is false in fiction.
For 6 episodes, the Sambre mini-series told us the long hunt for the “rapist of the Sambre”, a criminal who raped and sexually assaulted women for nearly 30 years in the North of France without ever being worried by the police.
Adapted from a real news story, the series is freely inspired by the investigation carried out by Alice Géraud for her book Sambre. Radioscopy of a news itempublished in January 2023.
If the screenwriter was careful to adapt the main facts, she also made numerous changes out of respect for the victims of Dino Scala, who is still behind bars today. To summarize, in Sambre, everything is true and false at the same time.
The victims are not real
If Dino Scala did indeed assault around fifty women between 1988 and 2018, the date of his arrest, none of the victims depicted in Sambre really existed. Even Christine Labot, the character played by Alix Poisson, whose evolution we follow over these thirty years, is not real.
“Christine was inspired by all victims and none at the same time,” explained Alice Géraud. “It was very important for Marc Herpoux and me that none of the victims were represented in the series. On the other hand, everything that happens to them, their reactions and their feelings, we drew that from reality because it was something we wanted to tell..”
The character of Christine, however, was of capital importance for the two screenwriters since it made it possible to highlight the consequences of a rape.
“When we talk about rape, we often have a narrative that stops at that moment. That’s why the character of Christine interested us, because we see this atrophied life which has in some way become stopped that morning on the edge of this river.”
There are actually hundreds of police officers
Just as with the victims of Dino Scala, the police officers, and more specifically Jean-Pierre (Julien Frison), are also not based on real people. There were in fact hundreds of police officers and several police stations who worked on the “rapist of the Sambre”, but the writers had to reduce this number to make the series easier to understand.
With the character of Jean-Pierre, Alice Garaud and Marc Herpoux wanted to show that he was only the fruit of his time, and that he evolved over time to finally come to the aid of Commander Winckler in the last episodes.
“Through this character, we show the evolution of police stations”, revealed Jean-Xavier de Lestrades, the director of Sambre before adding: “Jean-Pierre is a bit like us.”
Commander Etienne Winckler, who plays a key role in the last two episodes of Sambre, existed. But as with each of the characters at the heart of the episodes, the authors preferred to distance themselves from the real protagonist of the story.
The judge played by Pauline Parigot, the mayor played by Noémie Lvovsky (whose story has undergone some adjustments) and the geomatician played by Clémence Poésy are also protagonists who really had an impact on the investigation, but their characteristics do not correspond not to those of real people, the screenwriters having sometimes slightly modified reality to suit the needs of fiction.
Did the arrest of Dino Scala happen like in the series?
According to the two screenwriters, the character of Enzo Salina is probably the one who is closest to reality, their goal being not to humanize the culprit. Although they changed a few small, minor details, the essence of the character remains the same.
As for the arrest of Dino Scala, it took place as told in the series. It was at dawn, and while he was blocked by a semi-trailer, the police decided to arrest him.
But unlike in the series, it is not one of Etienne Winckler’s colleagues, played by Sandra Perfect, who handcuffs him, but a seasoned inspector on the eve of his retirement.
Commander Martins (played by Olivier Gourmet in the series) wanted to reward his involvement in tracking down the rapist, and thus crown his exemplary career.
Catch the last two episodes of Sambre this Monday, November 27 from 9:10 p.m. on France 2. The series is already available in full on the france.tv platform.