The series focuses on the Operation Barkhane mission in Mali, an anti-insurgent operation that has recently been front and centre in international news after France announced its withdrawal from the region after a nine-year battle in mid-February 2022. Soldiers not only depicts this deeply relevant current event, but goes further to explore the universal and moral dilemmas soldiers face when sent far away from their home countries, whatever their rank.
In the Mopti region of Mali, Lieutenant Anais Collet’s platoon, deployed as part of Operation Barkhane, is dedicated to tracking down terrorists. An ambush with dramatic consequences rekindles tensions between the military and the Malian people, who are less and less accepting of the French presence on their land. In a country where armed terrorist groups are multiplying, the French army must form a new and complex division whose mission is to avoid the declaration of a caliphate in the Sahel.
The complexity of the situation in the Sahel and the consequences of France’s involvement in the conflict are expressed through the different perspectives of several characters including French soldiers and Malians. Soldiers focuses in particular on three such characters, namely 28 year-old Anais Collet and 24 year-olds Martial Mendy and Julien Ravalet whose lives are forever changed by their mission. The series not only blends action and combat, but offers a fictional approach to this contemporary conflict that questions what France represents in the world today. From the country’s young soldiers pledging their allegiance to the blue, white and red flag to an army engaged in a complex war, the series reflects an era tormented by the issue of Islamic terrorism.
Federation confiermed that the series will premiere on OCS starting 5 April 2022.
