Tracking the missing
French stars Camille Razat and Hugo Becker reflect on their roles in true crime drama Les disparues de la gare (The Lost Station Girls), the challenge of playing characters in a story set over many years, and the ongoing impact of the real story told in the six-part series.
Between 1995 and 2001, one teenage girl disappeared and three young women were all murdered close to a train station in the town of Perpignan in southern France. Described as beautiful, free spirited and defiantly independent, their faces appeared in newspapers and they became known as ‘les disparues de la gare’ (the missing from the station).
That description now lends itself to the title of a fact-based Disney+ drama titled Les Disparues de la Gare (The Lost Station Girls), which dramatises the years-long police investigation into the cases of four young women.
Emily in Paris star Camille Razat plays Flore Robin, a young investigator who starts her job on the day the first woman is found dead. She then partners with police captain Franck Vidal (Hugo Becker) and his mentor Félix Sabueso (Patrick Timsit). Over several years, an extraordinary investigation unfolds across the country as the hunt for a mysterious and ruthless serial killer dubbed the “station killer” rages on, while a mother holds on to the hope of finding her daughter alive.
Created by Gaëlle Bellan, the six-part series is produced for Disney+ by Itinéraire Productions, the makers of Oussekine, which dramatises the death of a young student at the hands of police officers in 1986. It debuts tomorrow on Disney+ around the world and on Hulu in the US.
Speaking to DQ ahead of the show’s launch – and a year after filming was completed – Razat and Becker are in a reflective mood as they discuss the weight of the subject at the heart of the story.
“Of course, it is a very deep show, especially because of what’s going on with Tatiana Andujar and is still going on – it’s not a closed case, it’s a cold case,” Razat says, referencing the young woman who was never found. “We’re really hoping that the series will put a little bit of pressure on the police so they can reopen the case.
“But what is pretty unique about this show is that we’re putting ourselves in the perspective of not the killer, but the victims and the family life going on. How is it to face grief, loss and everything that comes around it? It is pretty tough. But the series is great on that aspect, because it’s a different point of view than we’re used to.”
Becker admits the story stayed with him and his co-stars even after filming ended. “At the end of a show like this, you cannot help but talk about it to your friends, your family, and to explain what really moved you with your character or with the series in general,” he says. “The main goal of the series is to pay tribute to the victims, of course. But we’re also actors, so we play our characters.
“The character I had to play, it was tough to put myself in his shoes and to have all this frustration. It’s not comparable to the pain of the families, of course, no way. But still, he’s someone who’s devoting himself entirely [to the case], and when you devote yourself to something, usually you sacrifice yourself, and that’s what he did.”
As Franck, Becker found he came to understand the determination of the police officers in the case, who spent years working without any results. “What is your role then?” he wonders. “It was the first time I was playing a cop like this, and it really moved me. It raised all these questions in my head. Each time I was spending time with friends, they could see that it was something that affected me a little bit. Of course, you keep on with your life, you have to, but in a way, you’re still carrying it.”
The series is also presented through Flore’s eyes, as viewers follow her narration through the episodes. “To be frank with you, it was not written that way,” says Razat, revealing that the voiceover aspect was added to later drafts of the script.
“But they did a good job with that, because we got more into what is it like to be a woman in the 90s, in the world of the police station, where most men are just not listening to her, except for maybe Hugo’s character,” the actor continues. “But she’s fighting to be heard. To be able to have this voiceover gets the spectator even closer to the story and into the point of view of someone who has lived it.”
Notably, both Razat and Becker had to evolve their performances as years spent on the case took their emotional and physical toll on the characters they play.
“Well, that’s the thing I love the most, to be honest – the arc of the character and to have the opportunity to play someone at a young age and at an older age,” says Becker (Je te promets). “Because, of course, it’s two different people. One is full of light, energy and hope and will and strength, and the other one is looking back at what he did. What did I do wrong? What could I have done better? And now, what can I do?
“To have this opportunity in a character is very rare, or sometimes it happens but there’s not really a reason why. You just play the guy older but the arc is the same. The relationship between the two also was something I really liked, the way it evolves and the way he puts hope in her character and he trusts her.”
“He trusts her from a very early stage, at a very young age,” Razat says of Franck’s relationship with Flore. “He’s one of the only characters that can understand that maybe a woman’s perspective on this kind of case is what is missing.
“On the technical aspect, we’re not shooting in the right order so every day I was asking, ‘What happened just before? Where are we? What year are we? What did I do? Did I do that already?’ I was very focused on the trajectory and the arc of the character to make sure I was in the right moment and the right state of mind for my character.”
Flore being new to the investigating team at the start of the series means that of all the characters, she has the most to learn – and changes the most over the series.
“At the end, she’s totally on another level, and leading the case,” Becker says.
“Becoming a mother also is a huge part,” Razat notes. “We don’t spend too much time on this on the show, but it was very clever to make this character as a mum later on, because this puts forward another point of view and another perspective regarding the character towards the cases. That’s another layer that is very interesting.”
Under director Virginie Sauveur, filming took place on location in Perpignan, and Becker recalls wondering if cast and crew would be welcome in the town. Some early interviews with local media helped to set out the intentions of the production and pull into focus the responsibility everyone felt working on the show to honour the victims.
“It was something we took very seriously,” Becker says. “It’s something that really is still very deep in the minds and in the hearts of people over there. It’s a hot subject.”
Yet it is a series without a conclusive ending. Razat hopes The Lost Station Girls offers some hope, “but also you get a lot of frustration because it’s still going on.”
She says: “There is life and death almost complimenting each other in this show. What makes it, in my opinion, a unique show is that we’re not showing the killer’s perspective. So I would say at the end of the show, you feel hope, but also so much frustration. That’s just my opinion. But at the end of the show, I was like, ‘Gosh, it’s not entirely solved.’ Yeah, it’s frustrating.”
“And there’s pain also,” adds Becker. “You realise how deep is the wound is. [With hope], it’s a weird combination.”
Like that? Watch this! Suggested by AI, selected by DQ
La Mante: A serial killer known as La Mante (The Mantis) agrees to help police find a copycat murderer – on condition that her detective son joins the investigation.
Les Témoins (Witnesses): When three bodies with no apparent connection are discovered in a show home in northern France, the police find them staged as if they were a real family. When the picture of a retired detective is found at the scene, he is forced back to work to solve the mystery.
Black Spot: In a remote, misty town with a murder rate six times the national average, the police chief battles personal ghosts while investigating grisly disappearances amid a backdrop of rural isolation.
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tagged in: Camille Razat, Disney, France, Hugo Becker, Hulu, Itinéraire Productions, Les Disparues de la Gare, Patrick Timsit, The Lost Station Girls