EXCLUSIVE: A host of broadcasters have snapped up a series about the woman who helped authorities find one of the perpetrators of the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris. November 13: Sonia’s Choice premieres on the France 2 channel this Thursday, the tenth anniversary of the attacks in the French capital that claimed 137 lives.
The four-part series blends documentary and drama reconstruction, with the scripted element crucial to protect the woman referred to as Sonia. She helped the authorities find Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who was the cousin of a young woman she had fostered, Hasna Ait Boulahcen. Both Abaaoud and Ait Boulahcen died along with an accomplice during a police raid on November 18, 2015.
Extraordinary lengths were taken to protect Sonia during the making of the show given she lives in witness protection and her life is at risk. Patrice Lorton’s Studio TF1-backed label CAPA made the show and enlisted its own ex-special forces security to protect Sonia. Lorton told Deadline about a meeting between the real-life Sonia and the actor playing her, Carima Amarouche, where she came with a large and heavily armed government security detail.
“We did interviews with former French President François Hollande, with ministers, and with all the cops, just as we would do for regular documentary. At the same time, we went deep into [Sonia’s] mind and the internal debates she was having,” Lorton said about the approach to making the series. “All of the tensions and emotions within her head and her heart were a second leg for the series. From the very beginning, we knew that we had to be half and half.”
Lorton produced with Andréa Rawlins. The pair previously worked on the award-winning doc Drugged and Abused: No More Shame, following Caroline Darian, daughter of Gisèle Pelicot. Although a quite different case, a through-line with that project and November 13: Sonia’s Choice is a focus on a woman who is at the heart of a story that has had a significant impact on French society.
The drama reenactments are based on Sonia’s testimony and police interviews and provided a new way of recounting what happened, Rawlins explained. “The first question was ‘How do you make a series with a main character that you must absolutely protect and that you can’t see?’ We needed to find a good way of giving life to her, of giving her back a face and humanity. The scripted part was essential in the filmmaker David André’s way of imagining this.”
André directed and also wrote the series, teaming with Violette Lazard, a French investigative journalist known for her work on the 2015 attacks.
Belgium’s RTBF and VRT, Radio-Canada in French-speaking Canada, and Spanish streamer Movistar Plus+ have all pre-bought the series. It is sold by Studio TF1, which cut the deals.
“November 13: Sonia’s Choice is an exclusive documentary that strongly resonates at the time we commemorate the 10 year anniversary of the terrorist attacks in Paris,” said Nadia Chevallard, SVP International sales at Studio TF1. “It is above all a work of public interest that goes far beyond our borders and we truly thank our international partners for their trust and early commitment on the project.”
