The manufacturing secrets of the “mystical thriller”, “Visions”

A polar far from the standards! Visionsminiseries available on somersault and contrary to what we announced last week, broadcast from this Monday at 9:10 p.m. on TF1stage Louane Emera in the role of Sarah, a child shrink who will forge a special bond with Diego, embodied by the revelation Léon Durieux, a little boy who has strange visions following the disappearance of Lily, an 11-year-old girl. A drama investigated by Romain (Soufiane Guerrab, seen in Lupine), captain of the gendarmerie and companion of Sarah. A fiction with an atypical tone. “We are very far from the codes. It’s a bet, any project is a bet, but this is a real risk taken by the channel and the producers. I find it fabulous that French fiction can afford these things, ”rejoices Akim Isker, who signs the staging.

Visions mixes paranormal, family drama and thriller. “It’s a mystical thriller,” he says. We are in the supernatural, in “Do we believe in it or not?”. Mediumship is still something still rooted in reality. We are not in pure fantasy. »

“I needed Diego’s visions to exist for real”

Rather than playing the fantasy thriller card, Akim Isker cultivates Visions a kind of disturbing strangeness. “This child has visions, he feels things, he sees things. For him, it’s natural. For me, this is something that could easily happen in real life. On the aesthetic level, he relies on reality and softness, rather than on special effects. “As a director, I assume that this story is true,” he explains. I needed Diego’s visions to exist for real. » When Diego has a vision of someone on his bed, a person is installed on his bed. “The only thing is that only Diego sees it and not the others. »

Some scenes can still be disturbing for a child like Léon Durieux. “I knew when I read this project that I was going to have to shoot with a child for almost 50 days of filming, so that this child had to be prepared for the experience of the set and everything that this miniseries tells”, relates the director. . For example, when Diego’s character sees a dead cat in the bathtub, Léon Durieux “didn’t have to shoot with the cat above him. He imagined it. We never experienced in situ, on the set, delicate or frightening situations, ”reassures the director.

“Telling the child’s point of view”

And to add: “Léon was really extraordinary. Thanks to him, in my opinion, I managed to bring in this series what I wanted, to tell the point of view of the child. He was perfect and understood me perfectly. It gave exactly what I was looking for. »

The aesthetic of Visions moves away from the usual codes of French detective series. “Most detective series are very much inspired by what has been done in the United States, with very classic codes of very dark interrogation rooms, with a big light in the center…”, recalls the director.

Instead, the rural and sunny setting of the Luberon. “I really enjoyed filming in this region. I also wanted to show a daily life of different investigators, we are not in a Parisian police station, but in a gendarmerie, ”he continues.

“It’s about how to take care of a child who is different from the others”

What seduced the director of the shocking TV movie Nobody’s Child in Visions, it’s the human drama dimension of fiction “The relationship between this child and his shrink, between a child and his mother”, he specifies. A common point that he shares with Louane Emera: “Louane was also really sensitive to the issue of children and child protection. Here, it’s about how to take care of a child who is different from the others,” he explains.

And it is on the actors that the staging of Visions relies to create its strange atmosphere. “I am close to bodies, I like cameras that are modest and do not go beyond a certain limit to tell something more than what the actor could release”, analyzes the filmmaker. And to add: “It happens in the head of Louane and little Léon when they respectively play Sarah and Diego rather strange things, what they feel, what they live. I wanted to capture that. »

Without special effects, by being on edge with the characters, Akim Isker succeeds from the first sequence in creating a mysterious atmosphere. “I wanted to transcribe in this first scene this feeling that we have when we arrive in a place and that we feel that something is wrong”, he explains. What to do with Visions a singular series in prime time on TF1.