# The Forest (2017)

> A small Ardennes village is shaken when a sixteen-year-old girl vanishes into the forest, and the investigation uncovers a community's buried past.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/62786

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 6
- Episode runtime: 50 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: crime, drama, mystery
- Created by: Delinda Jacobs
- Network: France 3
- Cast: Samuel Labarthe, Suzanne Clément, Alexia Barlier, Frédéric Diefenthal, Patrick Ridremont, Isis Guillaume
- TMDB rating: 7.2/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6560040/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: brooding, melancholic, tense, atmospheric

## What critics say

Critics broadly appreciate the series' atmospheric village mystery and strong performances, while viewing it as a modest, slow-building French thriller.

## Synopsis

The Forest (2017) is a French crime mystery limited series created by Delinda Jacobs for France 3. In a quiet village in the Ardennes, a sixteen-year-old girl vanishes into the surrounding woods after a late-night phone call to her teacher. Captain Gaspard Decker (Samuel Labarthe), a former soldier and newly arrived single father, leads the search alongside local officer Virginie Musso (Suzanne Clément), while the enigmatic teacher Eve Mendel (Alexia Barlier) becomes a key figure in the case. Eve has a mysterious past of her own, having been found as a child wandering silently through the same forest. Across six episodes of roughly fifty minutes each, the engine of the story is a patient, procedural hunt through close-knit neighbours, family tensions and half-truths, where every interview peels back another layer of the community's secrets. The tone is brooding and restrained, with a heavy atmosphere of rural unease and quiet grief. Set in the present-day Ardennes countryside, the series builds its dread from damp woodland, shuttered houses and a village that will not easily give up its past. Fans of Broadchurch and Twin Peaks will find resonance in its small-town dread and its unanswered questions about the people who live there.

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