European powerhouse Studiocanal, a part of the Canal+ Group, is bringing to market at Series Mania awaited crime thriller “The Corsican Line,” which toplines Raphaël Acloque, a lead in “24: Legacy” and Lina El Arabi, absolute star of 2024 Netflix smash “Furies,” considered one of its greatest performing French sequence of all time after “Lupin.”
A Canal+ Création Originale, “The Corsican Line” additionally reunites “Mafiosa” writer-director Pierre Leccia and Mediawan’s Picture et Compagnie, headed by Nicole Collet.
Unspooling in Corsica towards spectacular settings, “The Corsican Line” combines crime and household, arguably the 2 greatest attracts of scripted leisure, with a story providing a understanding immersion – Leccia is a Paris-based Corsican – in Corsica, its individuals, its methods and its ruthless mafia underworld.
Quickly to bow on French paybox Canal+, although no particular date has been introduced, “The Corsican Line” kicks in with Reda (Acloque) strolling free from Corsica’s grim Borgo penitentiary having served 10 years down by legislation for a bungled heist, refusing to grass on associate Jean-Do. In parallel, estranged sister Inés (El Arabi), a go-getting younger Justice of the Peace, arrives to assist spearhead Corsica’s newly shaped Anti-Mafia Unit.
When Reda is proven there’s now no place for him working apart Jean-Do, he pacts with Inés in a harmful alliance to carry down cruel mafia godfather Carlotti’s empire from inside. “As our bodies pile up, their battle for justice could come at an insufferable value,” the synopsis ends.
Selection sat down with Leccia and Collet earlier than Collection Mania to speak about Studiocanal’s newest and distinctive addition to its bracing style arsenal, already starting from motion packed “Has Fallen” franchise to underworld power-play drama “A Prophet” and WWI tremendous soldier sequence “Sentinels.”
At 31% of European scripted commissions, 2024 H2, in keeping with Ampere Evaluation, crime stays an important style in Europe. So a key problem is to ship authentic crime dramas. The place does “The Corsican Line’s” originality lie?
Leccia: Sure, there are certainly a variety of crime dramas. What we’ve tried to realize is a mixture of two totally different genres: crime, in fact, but additionally love story within the massive sense of household bonds, these of friendship. Similar to the sequence’ central character Reda is between two worlds, between two communities, the Arab and Corsican, its story braids two genres.
Additionally, the crime is singular in a number of methods: the clear and fixed mortal hazard of the mafia….
Leccia: Sure, that’s the way it goes. The truth is that if you happen to simply dip a finger in mafia enterprise, it’s like an octopus, you’re eaten up fully by the system. That’s what occurs to Reda.
You’ve talked about Reda’s being between two worlds. “The Corsican Line” additionally offers in bigger points, similar to belonging and id.
Leccia: The essence of a group is its self-containment. Coming from two communities, Reda doesn’t expertise a double sense of belonging, however a double rejection. You possibly can’t belong 50%. The issue’s within the legal underworld for people who find themselves not recognised as being from a particular group. Reda’s drawback as he recognises is that he’s too Corsican for Arabs and too Arab for Corsicans.
Episode 1 has some excellent settings: the seaside the place Reda swims within the sea, the very first thing he does when getting out of prism, or the mountain viewpoint of town and sea beneath, the place Inés and Reda meet in secret. I believe these settings repeat all through the sequence….
Leccia: Completely. Corsica is a mountain within the sea. It was the primary character solid.
Nicole Collet: We shot six months in Corsica, with some monetary assist from the area. There’s a very robust theater tradition and a variety of them on the island, offering an amazing pool of Corsican actors. Since we have now made “Mafiosa”, which ran to 5 seasons, there are additionally much more Corsican technicians and repair suppliers.
And the way, Nicole, does “The Corsican Line” match into the manufacturing technique of Picture et Compagnie?
Collet: We produce for Canal Plus+, shaping “The Corsican Line” to its tastes. I additionally usually work for with Arte, making sequence and one-off movies. Lots of my productions adapt fashionable books. I often work with administrators who additionally write.
Leccia: I’ve labored with Nicole for a very long time. She’s carefully concerned in initiatives, of their writing. For writer-directors it’s fulfilling to have a associate like that.
Picture et Compagnie types a part of Mediawan….
Collet: Sure, an enormous group. However my firm is sort of particular, simply me and an assistant. I observe initiatives from the very starting to finish. I’m an artisan, a craftsperson. I need to preserve this boutique character, with a small group, in order that I’m certain to solely make movie or sequence I’m notably captivated with”
And as a writer-director, Pierre, what could be your hallmarks as an auteur?
Leccia: I like to inform tales on which I’ve a viewpoint. On some issues I’ve nothing to say. I do know Corsica properly, nevertheless, and do have a put up of view. “The Corsican Line” isn’t only a mechanical crime drama. What I’m actually is speaking, telling tales about individuals, rising viewers of their skilled and private lives. That’s what makes “The Wire,” for instance, an distinctive sequence.
