The Disappeared from the station: “We are not in Dahmer”

Pierre Laugier (producer), Virginie Sauveur (director) and Gaëlle Bellan (creator) tell the story behind the scenes of the Disney Plus crime series, inspired by a chilling news story that marked Perpignan in the 1990s.

FIRST: It all starts with this affair in the Perpignan station district. Were you marked by this news item?

Pierre Laugier (producer): We discovered it together because we are passionate about news stories. I regularly went to Perpignan at the time, since I was born there and my family lived there. I followed this story and the psychosis that spread to the neighborhood, the city, and even the region very closely. Then Gaëlle took up this news item, with her experience on series like Engrenages or Le Bureau des legendes. The idea was to tell reality with the language of fiction.
Gaëlle Bellan (screenwriter): I think there was a message to be delivered through this series and through the story of these victims. I was very touched by the struggle of the Andujar family, whom I met quite early in the writing process. They were very generous and entrusted us with a lot of things that nourished the series. And then I was the same age as the victims at the time. It hit me.

How did you work to stay as close as possible to reality?

Pierre Laugier: We relied on existing documentation, we called on consultants, police officers, and above all, we created a link with the families. They told us a lot of things. And in every detail, we sought the closest reconstruction: the costumes, the photography, the makeup, the accessories, the sets…
Virginie Sauveur (director): There was an immense amount of documentation work. It’s the little details that allow you to move into an era. But there is also a huge responsibility when telling a true story. We document ourselves so as not to make any mistakes.

Why did you choose to put the victims at the center of the story?

Gaëlle Bellan: Because it was crucial. We’re not in Dahmer. The idea was not to follow the point of view of the killers, but to be interested in the victims. They were 20 years old and, suddenly, they came across someone whose violence was crazy. We had to show that: how a young woman is torn from her life, from her future. Violence against women is still everywhere. We also show it in the police station, where Flore experiences machismo on a daily basis. We follow the investigation through its feminine prism, a young woman in her 20s, who echoes the victims.

Did the memory of the deceased guide the writing?

Gaëlle Bellan: We always think about it. It’s constantly there, in the back of my mind.
Pierre Laugier: We can’t even sleep anymore. It’s something that haunts you.
Gaëlle Bellan: But the Andujar family loved the series and the way we talk about their drama. We would have been devastated if that hadn’t been the case. That they recognize each other, despite the fiction, is almost what pleases us the most. We have the feeling of having done the job. Now we can present the series to the public.

Would you say that Les Disparues de la gare is a French “true crime”?

Virginie Sauveur: Yes, we can say that, we are clearly in this type of fiction.

Pierre Laugier: Let’s say that we use the codes of “true crime” and twist them in the staging. We play with what the viewer expects: the first suspect, Palomino… We play with the imagination of the serial killer, then we show that the real killers are in reality very well integrated into society. In “true crime”, there is this notion of truth. And the truth of our society is that the killer may as well be your uncle who comes to lunch on Sunday. He’s not necessarily a sociopath locked in a slum with rats and reading Nietzsche.

When dealing with such a story, there remains the question of images. How far should the violence be shown?

Virginie Sauveur: Above all, we must not be complacent. Beauty in the service of nothing is of no use. I have a way of filming the actors as closely as possible, without any tricks. First the actors, for the emotion. But it was also necessary to show the violence of the murder, without sugarcoating it. We must find the right balance between brutality and vulgarity, avoiding the pornographic side of the crime.