‘A Prophet’ Producer Marco Cherqui Sets French Crime Drama ‘La Petite’ With ‘Vendetta’ Writer, ‘Call My Agent!’ Director (EXCLUSIVE)

Veteran French producer Marco Cherqui, best known for Jacques Audiard’s Oscar-nominated film “A Prophet,” will next produce “La Petite,” a four-part drama commissioned by France 2.

Set to shoot in six weeks, the series will be directed by Antoine Garceau (Call My Agent!) and written by Emmanuelle Michaud (“Vendetta,” “La Terre et le sang”). It stars Pauline Parigot as a police detective investigating the brutal murder of a young woman in Northern France.

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Producing through his Paris-based banner CPB Films – now part of Incognita Films, headed by Édouard de Vésinne — Cherqui said the show sits “in a similar vein” to socially grounded true-crime dramas such as Laetitia and “L’Affaire Laura Stern,” tackling violence against women while reflecting broader societal tensions.

In “La Petite,” two families in a provincial town raise their children with the expectation that they will one day become a couple. As teenagers, they begin a romance, but the young woman ultimately rejects this imposed future to live freely. The young man cannot accept the breakup, and after his accidental death, his grieving mother refuses to believe it was an accident and seeks someone to blame.

The story unfolds through a murder investigation into the young woman’s death, revealing a tragic chain of events “shaped by obsession, grief and the cost of a woman asserting her independence,” says Cherqui. The producer added that the show will “blend emotional storytelling with a restrained thriller structure.”

CPB Films is also developing a second season of “A Prophet,” reteaming with Italian director Enrico Maria Artale. Inspired by Audiard’s drama and created by two of its writers, Abdel Raouf Dafri and Nicolas Peufaillit, the first season of the drama premiered at Venice last year and aired on Canal+ in France and was sold by Studiocanal in major territories. The series unfolds in contemporary France and follows Malik (Mamadou Sidibé), a young African immigrant, trying to survive in a French prison, where he meets Massoud (Sami Bouajila), a powerful businessman.