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Join Telegram ChannelA journalist investigating a murder in the village of his childhood must reconnect with the traumas of his past. A thriller set in the North that is, to say the least, atypical.
It is a harsh and intense rural thriller that Arte will broadcast from this evening in prime time (the 4 episodes are already available online on Arte.tv). Presented in competition at Séries Mania last March, The world does not exist is the adaptation of the novel by Fabrice Humbert published in 2020.
If the plot of the book took place in a small town in the United States, the creator and director Erwan the Duke (Partridge, Her Father's Daughter) made the clever choice to transpose the action to the north of France. It is there, in Guerches-Sur-Isoire, that Adam Vollmann grew up. Now a Parisian journalist at the web editorial office of a major national daily, he discovers one morning that a certain Axel Challe is the number 1 suspect in the murder of a young woman, in his village in Pas-de-Calais. Axel, who has disappeared since the events, was Adam's best childhood friend. The reporter then decides to go there as a special envoy, in order to discover the truth…
In the shoes of this investigative journalist, Niels Schneider is remarkable in its intensity. He is this man who reluctantly returns to the traces of a complicated past and we quickly understand that the teenage Adam Vollmann suffered physical and moral harassment that left scars. Too effeminate for the local bullies and especially too close to the famous Axel, whom he refuses to see as a murderer… Erwan the Duke takes advantage of its northern setting to film territories that are too little explored by fiction and to bring to life secondary characters full of humor and drama (the local journalist who is as obsessive as she is funny; the guy from the media library whose camera continuously captures the absolute emptiness of the town).
These acts of violence and their consequences are the main subject of the mini-series, and this is unfortunately where it gets a little bogged down (let's point out that we were only able to see the first two episodes, out of four in total). The mystery surrounding Axel's guilt almost takes second place and all that remains are the confrontations between Adam and his former tormentors, most of whom have become integrated members of the community. These are striking scenes (the main character's stifled anger at these men who don't even recognize him) but which force the plot to mark time. Although the character study is fascinating, we would have liked it to The world does not exist shake up his formula a little.
The World Does Not Exist, in 4 episodes, to be seen on Arte on Thursdays September 26 and October 3, 2025. Already online for free on Arte.tv