When Alia fails to come home from a concert on a Friday evening, Julien immediately senses that this is not a straightforward teenage disappearance. Frustrated by what he sees as police inaction, he decides to investigate her disappearance himself, with the help of his best friend Nass, played by Arié Elmaleh, and his daughter’s teacher Charlie, played by Marilyn Lima.
What begins as one family’s desperate search quickly becomes a wider community effort. A Facebook group is set up and reaches 1,000 members within 48 hours. The series centres on the idea that anti-establishment figures, resourceful people and those close to the ground may be the best placed to help find missing young people.
A series freely inspired by real events
Brigade Anonyme is freely inspired by real events. Its central story draws on the experience of Béor, a photographer and film-maker who said: “Je me suis rapidement rendu compte que la police ne bougeait pas”.
That was his reaction in January 2019, when his 14-year-old daughter Assia disappeared. Thankfully, he was able to rely on those around him to help find the teenager. Thanks to a physical and online mobilisation, the father found his daughter safe and well after four days of relentless searching, 400 km from home.
After that rescue, he received many messages from distressed parents who were also searching for missing children. He then founded Les disparus anonymes, a citizens’ collective that helps search for missing minors.
Using the reach of social media, the association is now followed by more than 50,000 people on Facebook and 69,000 followers on Instagram. It is said to have helped find around 100 young people since it was created.
A story of solidarity
After telling his story in the book Alerte disparition, Béor shared it with five screenwriters, who turned it into the series Brigade Anonyme. The names have been changed and the story adapted to the needs of fiction, but the message remains the same: solidarity and mutual support can sometimes produce miracles.
“C’est ça qui est touchant dans cette série, confirms Arié Elmaleh, who plays Nass in the series. Certes, on est à la recherche d’enfants, mais c’est aussi une histoire de solidarité entre bénévoles, qui ne sont pas des flics et qui ont leur propre vie à côté. Le moteur, c’est l’entraide”.
Of course, Brigade Anonyme remains fiction, and so needed a disruptive element to drive the plot. Things become more complicated with the character of Florence Malherbe, played by Héléna Noguerra, a commissioner who is deeply irritated by Julien Castaneda’s new-found fame.
She carries an old grievance against the former outlaw and will do everything she can to catch him again.