On primetime TV on Rai 1 on Tuesday, August 28, One Step from the Truth tells the true story of the ruthless French serial killer Michel Fourniret, starting from his arrest and then – in reverse – through the ranks of the investigations.
The film, based on the book La mesange et l’ogresse by Harold Cobert, aired in France and Belgium as a miniseries in two episodes. The leading roles are played by Philippe Torreton (Michel Fourniret) and Isabelle Gelinas (Monique Oliver, wife and accomplice of Michel).
The True Story of Michel Fourniret
Michel Fourniret, who died in prison on May 10, 2021, was a bloody and ruthless French serial killer with Belgian citizenship.
Arrested in 2003 after a complex investigation, which saw the French police collaborating intensely with the Belgian police, in 2004 he confessed to having kidnapped, raped, and murdered eight girls between the 1980s and the 2000s (but, according to the prosecution, the murders would have been at least ten more). In 2020, a new confession led to the resolution of a horrific cold case. Behind the death of Estelle Mouzin, a nine-year-old girl who disappeared from the town of Guermantes in 2003, was him.
Nicknamed “the ogre of the Ardennes“, Fourniret was reported by his wife, Monique Olivier, until then his accomplice. The reason the woman turned him in was the prison sentence of Michelle Martin, the wife of another killer, Marc Dutroux. Despite the report, Olivier was sentenced to life imprisonment for committing one murder and for helping her husband in six others.
Two of Fourniret’s victims’ bodies were found near the castle of Sautou, where the man had long lived.
The Plot of the Film
One Step from the Truth begins with the arrest of Michel Fourniret on June 26, 2003. That day, the man was accused of the attempted kidnapping of a girl, but from the very outset, the French police were convinced they had captured a dangerous (and much-wanted) serial killer. The investigation then focuses on Monique Olivier, the wife, who transitions from witness to accomplice. Thus begins a physical and psychological battle to try to pin down one of the most enigmatic serial killers of recent decades.