The French producer Marco Cherqui, known for his work on Jacques Audiard’s acclaimed film A Prophet, is set to produce a new four-part television drama titled La Petite for France 2. The project will move into production in six weeks and brings together a creative team that mixes television and film experience. Direction is assigned to Antoine Garceau (known for Call My Agent!) while the scripts are penned by writer Emmanuelle Michaud (credits include Vendetta and La Terre et le sang). Leading the cast, Pauline Parigot plays a police detective tasked with unraveling the killing of a young woman in northern France.
Creative teams and production context
Production will be handled by CPB Films, which now operates under the umbrella of Incognita Films, run by Édouard de Vésinne. Cherqui positions the limited series within a lineage of socially grounded true-crime dramas, evoking titles such as Laetitia and L’Affaire Laura Stern. The intention is to confront the issue of violence against women while also using the case to reflect larger societal frictions. Cherqui has described the tone as a combination of measured thriller mechanics and emotionally driven storytelling, aiming for a show that privileges character and context over sensationalism.
Storyline and thematic focus
La Petite unfolds in a provincial town where two families raise their children with the unspoken expectation that the youngsters will one day become a couple. As the pair matures, a teenage romance blooms, but the young woman eventually rejects the path that has been laid out for her. Her refusal to accept that predetermined future becomes a catalyst: the young man struggles with the breakup, and after his death in what is initially described as an accident, his mother refuses to accept that account. The narrative then pivots to the murder investigation into the young woman’s death.
How the investigation frames the drama
The inquiry led by the detective played by Pauline Parigot exposes a sequence of events shaped by obsession, grief and the social cost of a woman asserting her autonomy. Rather than presenting an immediate solution, the series examines motives and community dynamics, allowing the audience to trace how small, personal choices metastasize into tragedy. The creative team aims for a restrained pacing that foregrounds emotional complexity and the long reverberations of loss, rather than relying on jump scares or overt genre signposting.
Production approach and tonal ambitions
Behind the scenes, Cherqui and CPB Films emphasize a production approach designed to preserve subtlety. The series is described as blending emotional storytelling with a restrained thriller structure, using police procedure as a lens to examine family expectations, communal pressure and gendered violence. Filming in a regional French setting is intended to root the story in a specific social texture: the landscape and small-town rhythms are treated as active elements in the drama rather than mere backdrops.
Casting and creative signals
With Pauline Parigot anchoring the investigation, the series is positioned to center the detective’s perspective while revealing how different community members react to the unfolding tragedy. The casting and crew choices signal a desire for naturalistic performances and an atmosphere of quiet tension. The show will be presented as a compact four-episode arc, which the producers say allows for a focused exploration of motive, responsibility and the consequences of resisting imposed life plans.
CPB Films’ parallel project: A Prophet season two
Alongside La Petite, CPB Films is also developing a second season of the television adaptation of A Prophet. The company will reunite with Italian director Enrico Maria Artale for the new installment. The series, inspired by Jacques Audiard’s original film and developed by writers Abdel Raouf Dafri and Nicolas Peufaillit, premiered at the Venice Film Festival and subsequently aired on Canal+ in France, with Studiocanal handling international sales. The storyline follows Malik (played by Mamadou Sidibé), a young African immigrant navigating survival inside a French prison, where he forms a consequential relationship with Massoud (played by Sami Bouajila).
