Disney+’s ‘Oussekine’ Creator Antoine Chevrollier On Telling The “Dark Part” Of The French National History Books & Seeking Inspiration From Netflix’s ‘When They See Us’
deadline.comDisney+’s French historical drama Oussekine will present the “dark part of our national history books,” according to its creator, who sought inspiration from Ava DuVernay’s U.S.
Netflix smash When They See Us.Antoine Chevrollier’s four-parter, one of the first Disney+ France originals to be greenlit, tells the story of the tragic death of Malik Oussekine, the response of his family down the years and the ripple effect on French society.
In 1986, the young French-Algerian student was chased and beaten to death by police at a protest against immigration restrictions, which were scrapped days later after the protests intensified in the wake of Oussekine’s death.Launching on adult-skewing vertical Star on May 11, the show features Messiah‘s Sayyid El Alami as Malik and Succession’s Hiam Abbas as his mother Aicha Oussekine and is the first to be showrun by The Bureau director Chevrollier, who oversaw a team of three French writers.He sought inspiration from pioneering U.S.
filmmaker DuVernay’s When They See Us, the Emmy-winning series telling the tragic story of the Central Park Five, along with The Wire for the way in which the pioneering HBO show depicted different precincts.“No one has really explained who Malik was and these immigrant stories are not told enough,” Chevrollier told Deadline days before launch. “This is a dark part of our national history book and so it was important for me to show what happened and explain and speak to this community.”Chevrollier first came across the story as a young man almost 30 years ago after listening to a song by French rap group Assassin about how the French state had killed Malik Oussekine eight years earlier.He wanted to tell it in a universal way and was contacted by the
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