French True Crime Breaks Barriers at Home and Abroad

variety.com:

Ben Croll French true crime broke barriers this year when the non-fiction miniseries “Unsuspected” premiered at Series Mania.

Such a showcase is rare for a factual program, but then, “Unsuspected” is a no common doc. Bringing together a pair of filmmakers with respective backgrounds in narrative features and investigative reporting, the four-part inquiry into a maddening 1970s cold case mixes archival accounts with textured recreations, making for a project that defies easy categorization. “Clearly, the boundaries are becoming blurred,” says France TV Distribution’s Julia Schulte. “Is this fiction?

Is this a documentary? It’s hard to say – and we’re getting to a powerful place where those lines are harder to draw. However, what’s abundantly clear is that the series is very, very entertaining.” Produced by Imagissime boss Elodie Polo Ackermann – the creative exec behind Netflix breakout “Who Killed Little Gregory?” – the Series Mania selected miniseries accented a spellbinding storytelling as it followed a Parisian psychiatrist obsessed with closing the book on a string of sexual assaults and homicides left unresolved for more than four decades.

With clean lines and narrative heft, the title blazed further trails since the Lille showcase, now that France TV will broadcast the series in a primetime fiction bloc.