The clarification of a disaster can be as exciting as a subject of a television series as a crime thriller. Think of the Finnish series “Seconds”. She took on a railway accident and really went through everything, from the first traces at the burned -out place of the event to the software, which is supposed to ensure the smooth operation of railways – wrote, well -played and staged. A real highlight of the ARD media library.
A French series, which is similar – “only 37 seconds” – is running on Arte, and also told about an accident. In six episodes, she examines the fall of a Breton cutter in the waters before Cornwall. In this case there is a real template: On January 15, 2004, the “Bugaled Breizh” sank from near Brest in the English Channel.
The circumstances of the fall of the fish cutter were exceptional. The weather was not a problem, the team experienced. Fischer nearby who reacted to the emergency call, neither the ship nor survivors found the lifeguards. Everything went incredibly quickly. And a submarine was spotted nearby. Not a Russian this time, but one of NATO.
Big expectations, dramatic zoom
The series begins with pictures of a court procedure that took place in London in autumn 2021. The people present move their Corona masks, the judge announces weeks of surveys for weeks. Big expectations, dramatic zoom. And we are already with five fishermen in yellow oil, men like Tristan (Victor Le Blond) and Arthur (Yann Trégouët), on board the “Bugaled Breizh”, 17 years earlier. You have not found any fish before France and decide to look for your luck in more promising waters near the UK.
Then another jump: a church, as jam -packed as you don't know churches today. The service runs, a moth fidgeted by the window and does not come outside – an oppressive indication of the fate of seafarers. The stocky Alan (Marc Bodnar), recognizable with a gray beard as the top fisherman in the village, tears an SMS out of the choral. He races to the harbor and tries with Loïc (Jonathan Thurnbull), the owner of the ship and friend of the crew, to get in touch with the captain. The women of the fishermen also rush.
The script by Anne Landoi and Sophie Kovess-Brun at once throws us up many faces. Some emphasize it – like the patent Marie (Nina Meurisse), a young mother who wants to marry a work invalid and would then be the sister -in -law of the fisherman Tristan. If you like, this is your story, even with relationship problems. A opening credits emphasized that not everything in “only 37 seconds” corresponds to the real event.
A little later the shock sits in the limbs: the “Bugaled Breizh” has dropped, two corpses were found, the official bodies do not examine more intensely than absolutely necessary. But they determine, at least and even wait with the thesis that the cutter could have collided with another vehicle. The viewed submarine is “in no way” caught up in the matter. Maybe a Filipino freighter. A first procedure is emerging in which the cutter owner Loïc wants to appear as a co -plaintiff; He sighs with a lawyer who will never understand the world of fishermen.
The director fully relies on history and figures
Above all, the series now follows Marie, who develops activist qualities, and the tapy lawyer Christophe Costil, whom the bereaved of the seafarers hire. He is played by Mathieu Demy, who is remembered as a teenager in “Die Zeit with Julien”, the 1988 film of his famous mother Agnès Varda, the Grande Dame of the Nouvelle Vague.
“Only 37 seconds” cannot be compared to series of American or Scandinavian design. The director Laure de Butler fully relies on history and the characters in her mourning phases, she does not allow an artistically fueled atmosphere. So it takes a little longer to get involved with the many characters and in the synchronized version, which ironed over the attractive change to English in the court scenes from 2021.
In the end, the series becomes better, sensitive to small and stimulating in the large -political, which, despite the military's assertion, is increasingly dominating the thoughts. Only the title is annoying. In the French original it is “37 Secondes”, in the German version “only 37 seconds”. You can just separate this from the Finnish series “Seconds”, but that the title “only” “only” “only” differs from that of a German court drama is “only” difficult for both series.
Only 37 seconds Start Arte this Thursday at 9.40 p.m. and run in the Arte media library.
