Do you have a precise memory of where you were on November 13, 2015and what you were doing when you learned about the attacks in Paris. This was the starting point for Spies of Terrorthe mini-series launched this Tuesday on M6. But the story told by the four episodes is much less well known: the hunt for those responsible for the 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 his screenplay in the writings of journalist Matthieu Suc, an article on Mediapart and his book Spies of Terror. If this well-documented book plunges the reader into the heart of the Amniyat, the secret services of Daeshthe plot, it approaches the subject through the point of view of the agents of the Directorate General of Internal Security (DGSI) and the General Directorate for External Security (DGSE).
“You’d never suspect the extent to which the secret services have been on fire. We witness this inner kitchen. What interests me, as a spectator, is learning everything that went on behind the terrorists’ trail, how it was organized. You can see that even the most insignificant things are good things,” says Rachida Brakni, who plays a DGSE analyst.
For Franck Philippon, the aim is to “take the viewer into a world he knows nothing about” and “pay tribute to the work of these agents who, on a daily basis, sacrifice their lives in a form of priesthood, with 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 a wealth of technical terms. Ambitious ingredients for a mini-series “on the fine line between documentary, fiction and realism,” says producer Alexandre Boyer, and broadcast on a general-interest channel. M6 gave the go-ahead, encouraged by the very high ratings recorded by the series on its channel. Chernobyl in 2021, with nearly 4 million viewers tuning in for each episode. This convinced her that there was an audience for this kind of demanding series.
We asked ourselves where we should place the cursor between what we needed to simplify pedagogically, while remaining faithful to the fact that these agents have a language we don’t understand,” explains the director. In series like Emergency [pleine de termes médicaux]that’s not a problem. We lose the viewer enough to make him think that we’re not taking the piss out of him, and that he doesn’t imagine that, because he understands everything, he could work for the DGSI.”
Protecting sources
“We’re not making an action film, we’re talking about networks and channels. If at times the audience – like the actors or ourselves in the writing – is a little lost, that’s not a problem. The main thing is to understand what’s at stake in the episode,” says Matthieu Suc, who helped write the script. The journalist, who generally finds that “French fiction is catastrophic when it comes to the intelligence services”, considers that Spies of Terror “is quite right on target”.
“What we say is very close to reality. The DGSE and DGSI read the script, and there was no censorship on their part. Their aim was more to guide us in case we made a mistake and to make sure we didn’t put anyone in danger,” assures Alexandre Boyer. We made changes to protect sources and people who actually exist. This is the case for Minotaure, who is currently living under police protection.”
This character is inspired by several sources and in particular one, who had a very important role in the aftermath of 13-November. “She helped prevent two attacks,” says the Mediapart journalist, who added the information about “Minotaure” to the recent Harper Collins paperback reprint of his book.
Neither “The Office of Legends”, nor “Mission: Impossible”.
The teams were able to draw on Matthieu Suc’s expertise, as well as exchanges with agents and access to court records. In fact, some lines were taken directly from the terrorists’ interviews.
We wanted to show things as they happened,” insists director Rodolphe Tissot. For the scene of Salah Abdeslamthe PVs speak of a red carpet with pizza boxes at the bottom of a cellar, well we shot at the bottom of a cellar with a red carpet and pizza boxes. It’s not a matter of verisimilitude, as can be The Office of Legendsbut of reality. That’s why the arrests aren’t all that spectacular. Agents spend months shadowing and listening in, and the arrest happens in five minutes on a street corner. They’re spectacular for what they tell, but we don’t do anything to stop them. Mission: impossible. “