Idriss Toma is a lawyer specializing in the defense of the rich and powerful. His life is turned upside down when he learns that he has only a few months to live after being shot three times in the head. His vision of the world and his job are changing radically, he now wants to defend the weak. Do we have the right to a second chance? This is the common thread of the new series of France 2 The code , with Daniel Njo Lobé in the main role. He received the award for best actor at the last Séries Mania festival.
The producer and author of this fiction is none other than Lionel Olenga, whose previous creation Cherif enjoyed success for six seasons before ending in 2019. “We wanted a front door that is very concerning and goes beyond the legal fact. It is a legal series but it is also and above all characters that we follow in their career”, admits Lionel Olenga.
“The thriller is perhaps easier to access, we have a tradition of thriller in France. But I find that the judicial series is more interesting because two visions oppose it.”
Lionel olengato franceinfo
“In a police series, we follow the police and it’s quite simple: there is a first false suspect then a second and then we arrest the murderer. In the judicial series, we have a confrontation of two points of view: l ‘prosecution and defense “, comments Lionel Olenga.
This big fan of series, especially American, is also a regular in the courtrooms. “I started my career as a screenwriter on Lawyers and Partners and I went to see real trials to feel and understand the customs and really see what is going on in a courtroom. Since then I go back there regularly.
For ‘The Code’, with the co-creators of the series, we called in technical advisers because even if we had a little idea of reality, it was important for us to have people who explain to us how things really go in life. It is first and foremost an entertainment series, we are not making a documentary on justice. The limit for us was to say to ourselves: ‘we want to talk about feminicides or self-defense but do we have a good story?’ First of all, a good story “, concludes Lionel Olenga.
Lionel Olenga has already started writing season 2. Hoping that the audiences for the first episodes will be satisfactory.