French riot act

Telepic targets touchy topic

By LEA MATHESON

Gallic films and TV movies traditionally have stayed clear of controversial topics, especially anything to do with political figures currently in office.

But several thought-provoking telepics are set to air this fall, the most daring of them "Une enquete," a gritty 90-minute TV movie on the youth uprisings that set fire to the French suburbs late last year.

Produced by Cineteve for pubcaster Arte, and due to air in January, the e1 million ($1.28 million) drama is being shot in Clichy-sous-Bois, the Paris suburb where it all started.

Never before has French TV tackled such recent events through a telepic. It is also the first time that a TV movie will openly question a well-known political figure, namely Nicolas Sarkozy, one of the likely candidates to replace Gaul president Jacques Chirac in 2007.

"We have included five to seven minutes of archival footage that shows how Sarkozy's statements in front of the press ignited the uprisings," says director Philippe Triboit.

A mix of real-life and fictional characters has been created by Triboit and co-scribe Marc Herpoux, who based their script on "L'Affaire Clichy," a book written by attorneys Emmanuel Tordjman and Jean-Pierre Mignard just after the events.

Triboit recently directed "Spiral," the first Gallic cop show sold to the BBC in more than 20 years. The show -- an eight-episode cliffhanger (at 52 minutes each) highlighting police corruption, produced by Son et Lumiere for satcaster Canal Plus -- aired on BBC4 to wide critical acclaim.

Triboit is typical of a new breed of Gallic TV drama writer-director: not afraid to broach sometimes difficult and challenging topics.

"We had three months to write the script, and we talked to most of the people involved. We had access to a lot of material, including several recordings of police interviews," Triboit says.

The telepic's main character is Muttin Altun, the lone survivor among three youths who took refuge in a power station during a police chase. The other two were electrocuted.

"We want people to remember that the starting point of the whole uprising was the death of two of these young people. Muttin Altun is the only survivor," Triboit says.