La disparue de Compostelle is a French miniseries created by Pierre Monjanel, starring Olivia Côte, Nicole Calfan, and Samir Boitard. Produced for France Télévisions, this four-episode drama combines drama and rural crime fiction in a suburban police station setting, centered around an investigation marked by deep trauma. The series will be broadcast on France 2 on Monday, December 1, 2025, at 9:10 p.m.
The story follows Jeanne Nogarède, a police officer who has returned to her native village of Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert. Five years earlier, the disappearance of Emma Vivian, the daughter of a childhood friend, had shaken the community and left Jeanne with a feeling of failure. The sudden appearance of a video generated by artificial intelligence, seemingly showing young Emma recounting her own disappearance, reopens the case and confronts Jeanne with unexpected gray areas. The testimony mentions a detail that could only be known by the attacker... or the girl's mother.
The mini-series weaves together several timelines to gradually reconstruct the events surrounding November 26, 2020, the day the child was last seen. Between family tensions, buried secrets, and media pressure, Jeanne must untangle old and new leads while confronting her own flaws. Each episode tightens the noose around a village whose appearances hide a fragile community cohesion.
Created in 2025, the series is part of a recent trend in French crime fiction that favors strong geographical roots, as seen in productions set in Brittany, the Landes region, or the heart of rural areas. Here, the landscapes of southern France play a key role in the atmosphere of the story, alternating between narrow streets, rocky plateaus, and Mediterranean forests. The setting of Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert provides an authentic backdrop, conducive to open-air closed-door scenes and intimate confrontations.
La disparue de Compostelle also questions the use of new technologies in contemporary investigations. The appearance of a video manipulated by AI acts as a narrative trigger, but also as a reflection on how images can alter or exploit the truth. The script focuses on the psychological impact of this digital intrusion into an unsolved case, showing how it disturbs both loved ones and authorities alike.
With its condensed format of four 52-minute episodes, the miniseries adopts a fast pace, alternating between investigation sequences, dives into the case archives, and more introspective moments centered on Jeanne Nogarède. Olivia Côte's performance, in a dramatic register less common for her, seeks to embody a character marked by guilt and the need for redemption. Fans of crime dramas rooted in reality will find elements similar to series such as Les Rivières pourpres (The Crimson Rivers) or Disparition inquiétante(Disturbing Disappearance).
La disparue de Compostelle
Series | 2025
Season 1 available on France 2 on December 1, 2025
Drama, Crime | 4 episodes of 52 min
Created by Pierre Monjanel | Starring Olivia Côte, Nicole Calfan, Samir Boitard
Nationality: France
By choosing to approach a child's disappearance from the perspective of the long term and collective trauma, La disparue de Compostelle offers a story in which the quest for truth goes beyond strictly police matters. The rural atmosphere, the role of families, and the tension generated by the return of manipulated images contribute to a mini-series that seeks to combine emotion, investigation, and social commentary.
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