[2] The six-part series is directed by Jean-Xavier de Lestrade and adapted from the true-crime book Sambre, radioscopie d'un fait divers by French journalist Alice Géraud.
[3] Lestrade previously directed the documentary series The Staircase (2004, 2013 and 2018) which was at the frontier of the new televisual true crime wave, and each episode of Sambre is end-credited as “fiction, inspired by real events” and "intended to pay tribute to the victims".
The cast is led by Alix Poisson, Jonathan Turnbull and Julien Frison throughout, and augmented by Noémie Lvovsky, Pauline Parigot, Clémence Poésy and Olivier Gourmet[7] in individual episodes.
[9] After its broadcast in France in 2023, newspaper Les Echos described it as "a disturbing yet essential series that shines a spotlight on the very slow response by society and institutions when it comes to sexual crimes".
[11] In 2024 when broadcast in the UK, a Guardian newspaper review praised it as "an important artefact of outrage, spotlighting the institutional failings and ingrained cultural misogyny that left the rapist at large for so long".