Paris (AFP)

Freshly elected, the first French president of Algerian origin is targeted by an assassination attempt in the series "Les Sauvages". A bold starting point that will help to question the place and identity of the descendants of immigrants in France.

A former professor at Harvard, Idder Chaouch (played by Roschdy Zem) received a bullet in the belly on the night of his inauguration as President of the Republic.

The motivations of the shooter are unclear: the teenager, himself of Maghreb origin, is a cousin of Fouad Nerrouche, the president's son-in-law. Is it an isolated act? From a sponsored attack?

The life of Fouad, to whom everything was successful until then, is turned upside down. In total misunderstanding, this young man will return to his hometown, Saint-Etienne, to seek explanations from his family.

Central character of this original creation of Canal +, it is at the same time torn and hyphen between two worlds: "the proletarian Arabs of Saint-Etienne and the Arabs bourges of Paris", explains to AFP Sabri Louatah, author of the series but also novels that inspired it.

"I love romance and I wanted to show people of my family, a family of Saint-Etienne, worker and of Kabyle origin, they are truculent characters who plunge collectively into the tumult of national events", explains the writer who wrote between 2010 and 2015 the saga in four volumes, at the origin of the series in six episodes, mixing intrigue family, political and police.

Should we see resonances with "Soumission", the best-selling novel by Michel Houellebecq, who imagined the arrival in power of a Muslim president?

No comparison possible, replies Sabri Louatah.

"Houellebecq has imagined a nightmare, the confusion of the intellectual white man.I do discover to the audience lives that are not theirs, by asking questions, without morality, or definitive answer", responds the thirty-something, who depicts the course of French of Maghrebi origin of different generations.

- New generation of actors -

"What I liked was to adapt a novel of which there was already a well-dressed pilot who took me to a genre cinema," says director Rebecca Zlotowski, who makes her first foray into a series.

The one who made the old escort Zahia Dehar turn in "An easy girl", released at the end of August, wanted to mix known and more novice comedians for "Les Sauvages".

"The casting is like building a complex scaffolding: you have to get headliners to reveal a new generation of actors," says this big fan of the series "At the White House" (" The West Wing "in VO).

This is how Roschdy Zem, with the false airs of Barack Obama, replies to the rising value Dali Benssalah (the cast of the next James Bond), the young Iliès Kadri and Lyna Khoudri, soon in the movie poster "Papicha", on the Algerian youth during the years of lead.

And Marina Fois, as a security officer, is pursuing Sofiane Zermani (aka the rapper Fianso), which we see more and more on the boards as on the screen.

Fighting against clichés, the series is punctuated by the notes of the "Sauvages", drawn from the opera-ballet "Les Indes galantes" by Jean-Philippe Rameau, to whom it owes part of its voluntarily provocative title.

Presented in preview at the La Rochelle TV drama festival, the series will be broadcast from September 23 on the encrypted channel.

© 2019 AFP