Into the Otherworld
Anaon director David Hourrègue reflects on making this fantastical French coming-of-age series and working with teenagers again after Skam France, and explains why making the show was the “greatest experience” of his career.
After directing more than 60 episodes of Skam France, the French adaptation of the breakout Norwegian hit series that follows the daily lives of a group of high-school students, David Hourreguè vowed never to work on a series with teenagers in a school again.
He followed that project with Germinal, a modern retelling of Emile Zola’s classic novel about a coalminers’ strike in northern France in the 1860s, and sci-fi drama Rivages (Sea Shadows), about a marine scientist who returns to her hometown to investigate a mysterious shipwreck.
The filmmaker was then due to take on a new adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo. But that plan changed when he was approached to direct six-part YA fantasy thriller Anaon.
“After Skam France, I made a promise to myself that I wouldn’t do a new TV show with teenagers ever, ever in a school,” he tells DQ. “Then I received the script of Anaon and I just remember I was saying to myself, ‘Oh shit, here we go again.’”
A blend of rural crime thriller and coming-of-age drama, local folklore and the supernatural, Anaon (Annwyn – The Otherworld) opens as Max (Giullaume Labbé), still grieving the death of his wife, is assigned to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a teenage girl. His daughter Wendie (Capucine Malarre) is trying to get on with the daily challenges of high school, but when she encounters a series of strange events, they must come together to solve a mystery that hints at supernatural events and Wendie’s own powers.
Created by Bastien Dartois with Sylvain Caron and Elsa Vasseur, the show is produced by Tetra Media Fiction and distributed by France Télévisions Distribution. It debuted on Prime Video France earlier this month and will later air on France Télévisions.
Hourrègue, who directs all six episodes, is quick to point out that his reluctance to take on another series centring on a group of teenagers wasn’t because he doesn’t like them. “I love them,” he tells DQ, speaking at French television festival Series Mania, where the series had its world premiere. “But it takes years of my life to know [these characters] in an emotional way. I don’t want to shoot them like an adult or like a father. I must be here [up close] to capture the essence of their emotions.
“When I was reading this story about love, grief and the connection between the father and his daughter, it was impossible for me to refuse this mission. So I called my agent. ‘Hello? Bad news for Monte Cristo, but I must do this show.’”
In particular, his interest in the project was heightened by a personal connection to the story. “I was the exact age of the young character, Wendie, when I lost my father,” he says. “Anaon was the greatest experience of my career because every day on the set, you could feel the vibrations of the team, of the actors and of me. It was unbelievable to do. It was not easy because it was a very quick shoot, but in an emotional way, it took me a month [to get over it].
“It’s not a story about a father fighting to beat his own grief. It’s a story about a father not letting his daughter be destroyed by it. So how can he speak to her? How can he fill the silence? It’s about the long way to reconnect.”
Reading the scripts, Hourrègue says the vision for the story was already very “precise,” yet there was still room for him to bring his own ideas to the project. “Bastien did a terrific job, but it was clear coming to this show I could do my own vision of Bastien’s very personal story. Between us, it was a terrific partnership.”
While he was “excited” by the fantastical elements in the series, Hourrégue knew the time constraints of the production meant realising them was going to be a challenge. “I was sure that you can’t beat the Americans or the English in this area because they have time, they have more money, so you have to be creative,” he says. “I had two or three hours to shoot the main fantastical moments, so it was always ‘be precise,’ but the emotional stuff was the main focus of the show. It’s an emotional rollercoaster.”
Meanwhile, working with teenagers again, he found this generation have “nothing in common” with the teenagers he worked with on Skam just a few years earlier. “They have the same doubts. They have the same fears,” he says, “but not the same way to express them. So I just try to show them the direction and try to find the right distance with them.
“It’s fantastic because when they love, they love deeply. When they’re suffering, things are going to die. So in a narrative way, in a dramatic way, it’s incredible to be here and to capture this, and I had an amazing chance to find them. Capucine Malarre, who plays Wendie, is a jewel. I have never seen a young actress like this, and I’ve seen so many of them. All these teenagers in the show, they are the characters.”
When it comes to discussing Anaon, a story about a group of teenagers facing otherworldly threats, there will inevitably be comparisons to Netflix juggernaut Stranger Things, which returns to the streamer for its fifth and final season this year.
Hourrègue says he hadn’t seen the show – which is inspired by the 1980s films of Hollywood director Steven Spielberg and his Amblin Entertainment production company – until his son began to watch it. “And I was very moved that he was in front of the television hearing Every Breath You Take from The Police in a beautiful scene,” he says of a moment in season two. “I just said to him, ‘OK, I’m going to show you the Amblin stuff – ET, The Goonies… He asked me to one day do a show like this, and right now he’s very happy.”
Filmed in Brittany, the show’s locations feed into the mythology within the series, with Hourrègue describing the region as a “very secret area” and one that’s full of stories. “You pick up a stone and behind it there is a legend. It’s a very special place in France.”
The area also inspired the decision to eschew CGI in favour practical effects – which includes the “creature” at the centre of the story. “I want my actors to play with some real stuff, and it was incredible,” he says. “When the creature was on set, [after a while] we began to make fun of it. But the first day, wow, it was spectacular.”
“We are the generation inspired by [Star Wars feature] The Empire Strikes Back, when Mark Hamill [as Luke Skywalker] was playing with Yoda, which was a puppet. No one could believe what was happening. Mark Hamill talked about how when he came back for the new trilogy and it was CGI stuff, he was so sad. It’s not the same thing. I make a promise to all my actors that, when you come on my set, you just have to play. You will believe in the area, you will believe in your clothes, you’ll believe in what’s happening around you. That’s the main sense of playing.”
It’s that passion for the story – and the storytelling – that Hourrègue hopes will come across to viewers when they watch Anaon.
“I’ve had a lot of luck in my life. Everything I’ve done until now has encountered success,” he says. “Even lately, like Sea Shadows, it was not a success on TV but on streaming it was, so it was very strange. But I really feel that there is an audience waiting for this sort of programme right now in France. Maybe it won’t be a success on Prime Video, maybe it wouldn’t be a success on classic television, but I’m sure when we come to a free streamer like France.TV, people will come. They’ll find it.”
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tagged in: Anaon, Annwyn – The Otherworld, David Hourrègue, France Télévisions, France Télévisions Distribution, Prime Video, Tetra Media Fiction