Deep impact
In Québécois drama Ravages (Deep Cuts), the murder of an environmental activist leads a lawyer to uncover the controversial dealings of a powerful mining company. DQ digs deeper with director Sophie Deraspe and executive producer Nicola Merola to find out more.
It’s the wake-up call of nightmares. Lawyer Sarah Deléan is roused from sleep in bed one morning, only to discover she is splattered with blood dripping down from the ceiling. Then when she visits the apartment above, she finds the dead body of her mysterious neighbour.
While conducting her own investigation, Sarah uncovers the controversial activities of Minexore, a powerful Canadian mining company with ties to the firm where she works, and learns that the murder victim was an environmental activist who had clashed with Minexore over a mine in Guatemala.
Québécois series Ravages (Deep Cuts) places Sarah in the middle of an emerging war between protestors and corporate giants, as she is plunged into a complex and dangerous web of alliances and betrayals with far-reaching consequences, both in Latin America and on Québec’s North Shore.
Starring Caroline Dhavernas (Hannibal, Mary Kills People), the six-part series comes from writer and director Sophie Deraspe, who first pitched this environmental thriller with a murder mystery at its centre at C21 Media’s Content London in 2022. Less than three years later, the French-language drama has debuted on Québecois streamer Illico+.
When Deraspe was pitching the series in London, there was just one script prepared. Then when co-writer Frédéric Ouellet came on board, he supercharged the thriller side of the story.
“We really wanted to do an environmental thriller. That was our first idea, and the fact that Frédéric joined in the writing meant he made it more of a thriller than maybe I would have done, but it’s still the same idea,” Deraspe tells DQ. “It’s the same opening sequence with the murder of an activist in Montreal.”
Her interest in telling an environmental story is rooted in the relevance of the subject around the world today, with the series based very much in reality. “It’s based on the economy, politics. With this series, it’s set within the mining industry, and even if we want to electrify transportation or whatever, we will always need resources coming from the Earth,” she says. “So it is even more relevant than ever. Why not speak about those topics within an entertaining medium, which is a thriller series with a murder that we have to find the resolution to?”
Finding that balance between the show’s environmental message and keeping viewers hooked with the murder investigation proved to be the key to the show’s development, with producer Pixcom also a valuable voice in those discussions. APC is the distributor.
“Between the two writers and the producers, we were quite aware of the fact that we didn’t want to sound like we know what is good and we have to teach you that,” says Deraspe, whose credits include feature film Antigone and series Bête Noire and Motel Paradis. “That’s not the way we wanted it to feel for the audience, but it’s quite difficult to find the balance.”
“How do you do a commercial series about the environment?” asks Pixcom president and executive producer Nicola Merola. “Sophie had a few tools and, quickly, we all realised we did not want to preach to the converted. We wanted to reach a wider audience. So the thriller became one of the tools Sophie used in order to make this show about not an easy topic; a very important topic, but not an easy topic. The thriller was a good tool for that.”
Viewers find Sarah in a privileged position, enjoying the material perks of her and her husband’s high-paying roles at the same legal firm. But she also comes from a challenging background, having been raised by a single mother, “so she had to work very hard to achieve who she is as a 40-something lawyer at a very good and reputable firm,” Deraspe explains. “They have very powerful clients and so, in a way, they are the people ruling the world. Her husband just became a partner in the firm and they seem to be in love, so all is fine.”
Trouble disrupts her seemingly perfect life when she discovers a murder has taken place above her head and slowly begins to learn this wasn’t a random act of violence, owing to the victim’s links to Minexore.
“With this, we are more in the tradition of the thriller, but of course Sarah clashes with the police investigator. They don’t work the same way,” the director notes. “She’s like all of us in this world, trying to make a better living and at the same time feeling that, ‘Oh, if I’m so much into my work and trying to achieve something professionally, how do I find the balance with my family?’ She’s forced to see things from a different angle.”
Ouellet originally joined the project in a supporting role, but the opportunity for Deraspe to shoot a long-gestating feature film meant he was invited to take up the reins during the director’s absence. “But it’s still the same story. Episode one is close to what it was. Of course, his touches are in it,” Deraspe says. “I’d say he was very good at writing the villain in the more traditional way of thrillers.”
Deraspe also found strong support in star Dhavernas. “I only have amazing things to say about her. She is a strong actress and her way of acting, there’s nothing false about her,” she says. “She’s always impersonating the moment, the character, the emotion of the scene. She’s daring, open, sensitive and bright. But at the same time, if I want to do something a little different, she’s always like, ‘OK, good idea. We will do it.’ So it was so great working with her. I would do it again anytime.”
The pair teamed up on sets in Northern Québec, Montreal and Mexico. But as plans for the production started to take shape, Deraspe also had to consider filming scenes of a sensitive nature in a mine, where questions might be asked of the companies involved in that industry, while ensuring the security of the cast and crew.
“On a production level, it was complicated,” she says. “We managed to do it and sometimes we had to be very creative and manage the relationships we had with different people. Then on my level, when I’m shooting, I often felt like, ‘OK, I have to bring something fun.’ We’re making entertainment and it was quite exciting to be part of it, as we were in an environment where regular people are not supposed to just walk.”
That the series is coproduced by French broadcaster Arte meant Deraspe also had to navigate notes from two networks with broadly opposing styles – Illico+ parent TVA Group and a traditionally arts-based channel in Arte. The TVA network will air the series next year.
“It was the first time Arte had worked with TVA, TVA being a very commercial network, so there were some adjustments there, although ultimately everybody wanted the same show. But the road was sometimes bumpy,” Merola says. “Sophie was extremely creative and patient. We felt very grateful Sophie was helming it.”
“Concerning the expectations from two different broadcasters, I had to find a way to make sure they felt understood or listened to while keeping the series what it had to be in creative or storytelling terms. Ultimately it worked,” Deraspe says. “I made some changes, but the changes often were not what they suggested. ‘We don’t do the same kind of work, so let me figure out a way.’ That’s how I worked.”
By the end of the series, “more and more people do want things to change. But mining is still going on,” Deraspe says. What muddies the water in the show is that even among the activist and environmentalist characters, “it’s not black and white, and these are the good guys and these are the bad guys,” she adds.
“It was tough to write such a series and not feel that we’re teaching people, and not to feel that Sarah is obviously taking the right path. So there are different things happening in her life that will, maybe, influence her direction, but it’s not an easy one. Those decisions aren’t easy.”
Above all, Deraspe hopes viewers will be gripped by the series, no matter their position in the climate change debate. “Anybody who doesn’t know much about the environment, or is even maybe a bit annoyed by the conversation about the environment, can still enjoy it,” she says. “Hopefully there’s a little something there that can change the way you see the world.”
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tagged in: APC, Arte, Caroline Dhavernas, Deep Cuts, Illico, Nicola Merola, Pixcom, Ravages, Sophie Deraspe, TVA Group