THE TRIGGER

(La Fièvre)

TELEVISION COMPETITION
MELVILLE THEATRE
Series, Drama / Thriller, Episodes 1 & 2

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 30
9:55 pm
FRIDAY NOVEMBER 1
10:55 am (Screening ends at 1:00 pm)
SATURDAY NOVEMBER 2
1:00 pm (Screening ends at 3:05 pm)
SUNDAY NOVEMBER 3
7:00 pm (Screening ends at 9:05 pm)

Presented in association with:
StudioCanal
TITRAFILM

Directed by: Ziad Doueiri
Created by: Eric Benzekri
Written by: Eric Benzekri, Laure Chichmanov, Anthony Gizel
Produced by: Nicolas Duval Adassovsky, Olivier Nakache, Eric Toledano (Quad+Ten), Laura Rembault (Léon Productions), Eric Benzekri
Cinematography: Tommaso Fiorilli
Film Editing: Eric Armbruster, Camille Toubkis
Original Score: Paul-Marie Barbier, Julien Grunberg
Cast: Nina Meurisse (Sam berger), Ana Girardot (Marie Kinsky), Benjamin Biolay (François Marens), Xavier Robic (Tristan Javier), Alassane Diong (Fodé Thiam), Pascal Vannson (Pascal Terret), Assa Sylla (Fatou Thiam), Lou-Adriana Bouziouane (Kenza Chelbi)
International Sales: StudioCanal
Original Broadcast: Canal+ (March 2024)

The glitterati of French football attend an annual awards ceremony, when scandal erupts. A Black football star headbutts his white coach and lets out a racist slur, triggering an enormous wave of media backlash, accusations of anti-white racism and urgent demands for his expulsion from the team. A PR crisis management firm is immediately brought in to diffuse the situation and save the team’s future, as a society torn apart by identity conflicts teeters on the brink of chaos and civil war. Considered “one of the most ambitious French series of recent years” by Les Inrockuptibles magazine, The Trigger dissects a media storm blown out of proportion and, in doing so, takes on the burning socio-political issues of culture wars, polarization, radicalization, social media influencers, and the rise of the alt-right.

Series creator and showrunner Eric Benzekri is a political-advisor-turned-screenwriter best known for the gritty mega-hit political drama series, Baron Noir (COLCOA 2017), starring Kad Merad, on Canal+. His previous writing credits include the feature film The Adulteen (2013), and the series Lascars (2016-2020) and Maison Close (2010). After ten years as an assistant cameraman, the Lebanese-born Ziad Doueiri turned to directing in 1998 and has garnered numerous film festival awards for his films. His directing credits include the features West Beirut (1998), Lila dit ça (2004), The Attack (COLCOA 2013), and The Insult (2017), which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film; as well as the series Baron Noir (COLCOA 2017), Inhuman Resources (2020) and Cœurs Noirs (2023).