"We did not want to redo yet another spy series, somewhere between James Bond, Jack Ryan or even + the Office of Legends +", explains to AFP Olivier Dujol, at the origin of the project with Juliette Soubrier ("Blank Zone").

He had himself participated in the writing of this flagship series of Canal + spies.

At the direction, alongside Jérôme Salle ("Largo Winch"), we find Frédéric Jardin and Antoine Blossier.

Unlike the classics of the genre, the main characters, including Francis Mareuil, played by Niels Schneider, are not trained spies.

Stuck in a marriage of convenience with his wife, played by Ana Girardot, Francis has passion only for his work as a space engineer.

In search of adrenaline, he accepts the mission entrusted to him by the friend of his deceased father (Lambert Wilson) in East Berlin on behalf of the SDECE, the French foreign secret services.

Tasked with approaching a Soviet scientist to obtain information on a mysterious radio-controlled bomb, Francis will especially get closer to his daughter (Vera Kolesnikova), without suspecting that this young pianist is herself forced to work for the KGB.

Then arises the difficult arbitration between their feelings, the fear for their families and that of betraying their country.

An intricate scenario served by a sober and chiseled production, in the Paris of the 1960s, but also in Berlin and Algeria.

Toured between France, the Czech Republic and Spain, this large production is carried by Amazon and Gaumont.

"More and more series are produced in France, says Juliette Soubrier. For us screenwriters, it's still the golden age, we've never had so many possibilities."

The occasion also for a first step into the world of series for Lambert Wilson as for José Garcia, in the skin of a CIA agent addicted to drugs, a role far from the beaten path of comedy.

But the actor finds similarities with his job.

And to ironize: "You're always tortured in a certain way when you're a spy, and when you're an actor... I mean, that's the base."

"Totems" will be available on Amazon Prime on February 18.

© 2022 AFP