The TV film starring Elodie Bouchez features a woman helped by a journalist in her investigation into the nursing home where her mother died suddenly and unexplained.
:quality(50)/2023/07/10/64abd44855ee1_placeholder-36b69ec8.png)
Published
Reading time: 1 min
:quality(50)/2022/02/01/phpYFwG0m.jpg)
The investigation book The Gravediggers by Victor Castanet, which denounced mistreatment at the giant private nursing home Orpea, has inspired a TV movie whose filming is due to begin on Thursday with Elodie Bouchez in the lead role, France 2 announced on Wednesday. Filmmaker Guillaume Nicloux is directing this adaptation, called The banks of the river and whose broadcast date is not yet known.
According to a press release from France Télévisions, the story is as follows: “Alice, a veterinarian in her fifties, is confronted with the mysterious and sudden death of her mother shortly after placing her in a retirement home.”
And “When her uncle Jacques announces that he is moving into the same residence, the fear of losing him as well acts as a detonator for Alice. She then begins an investigation into the circumstances surrounding her mother’s death and quickly discovers disturbing irregularities within the establishment.” But as she gives up, a journalist appears, “decided to expose the systemic excesses within the group”.
Elodie Bouchez, in the title role, will be accompanied by Didier Flamand, Eric Caravaca, Françoise Lebrun and Sammy Lechea. The filming of this production of Storia Television (Mediawan) takes place in Nouvelle-Aquitaine until October 24.
Released in 2022, The Gravediggers caused Orpea, a giant in the private retirement home sector, to implode. It denounced in detail the mistreatment of residents, the failures in personnel management and the misuse of public funds. The group and former managers are facing legal proceedings.
:quality(50)/2022/02/01/phpYFwG0m.jpg)
Victor Castanet has since published a new book, The Ogres (Flammarion), in which he points out the “voracity” of certain groups of private nurseries, combined with the“inaction” public authorities, which according to him have had impacts “dramatic” on the sector and on children.