July 24, 2026
Available July 22 on Netflix, GIGN takes Tomer Sisley into the heart of an attack on an elite unit of the National Gendarmerie. The plot is so intense that there are reasons to doubt: is the series inspired by a real event?
An attack on GIGN headquarters, a hunt for an enemy armed with a ton of stolen explosives, David’s personal mission to protect his godson Max: none of it happened. Unlike other productions focusing on elite units, GIGN does not reconstruct any specific intervention. On the other hand, GIGN itself is very real, and its story goes far beyond fiction. Created in 1974 after the hostage crisis in Munich, the unit carried out some of the most significant operations in the history of the French fight against terrorism: the release of the Loyada hostages in 1976, the storming of the Great Mosque of Mecca in 1979, the operation in the Uvea cave in 1988, the storming of Air France flight 8969 in Marignane in 1994, the release of hostages Ponan in 2008 or the hunt for the Kouachi brothers after the Charlie Hebdo attack in 2015.
If the plot of GIGN is fictional, then the series was constructed with a supposed concern for realism. Filming was carried out with the official support of GIGN, whose technical consultants accompanied the filming at every stage, from script writing to intervention choreography, including equipment, equipment and tactical protocols shown on screen. This is not the first time that Julien Leclerc has worked hand in hand with the unit: his film L’ASSAUT, released in 2011, already dealt with a very real event – the hostage crisis of Air France Flight 8969 in 1994, involving veterans of the operation.
The director then explained that “we need their experience and technical advice” to keep things real. This closeness is felt even in the performance of Tomer Sisley, who recently told Franceinfo that he “really admires these guys.” In GIGN, Leclerc replaces historical reconstruction with pure fiction, but maintains the same requirements for authenticity in relation to the unity he depicts.