Youssef Guedira

Youssef Guédira is a main character in the French thriller series Lupin. He is portrayed by Soufiane Guerrab.

Guédira is a detective in the Paris police force. After the theft of Marie-Antoinette's necklace from the Louvre, he is the first to recognize that the culprit was inspired by Arsène Lupin, although his ideas are initially not taken seriously by his colleagues. As he uncovers more evidence, Guédira begins to wonder whether the police are on the right side of the law.

Part 1
Guédira is one of the police officers to respond to Kevin, Vincent and Rudy crashing their Ferrari into the Pyramide Inversée at the Louvre. He remarks to his captain, Romain Laugier, that the situation reminds him of an Arsène Lupin story. After the necklace the the police had recovered is discovered to be a fake, the businessman who had bought it, "Paul Sernine" (who has seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth) becomes the prime suspect. Guédira checks testimony given by Vincent, Kevin and Rudy, and finds that they referred to their accomplice, who was the same man, as "Luis Perenna." After realizing that both "Paul Sernine" and "Luis Perenna" are anagrams of "Arsène Lupin," Guédira decides that the crimes have a connection to the Lupin stories. However, Sofia Belkacem discourages him from telling Laugier about this.



After Dumont is kidnapped from City Hall, Guédira is able to locate his phone in Pantin; however, when he, Laugier, Belkacem and several other officers arrive on the scene, they find a van with a case inside it that contains a clown doll and Dumont's phone. After the driver of the van testifies that a man in an orange beanie had paid him to drive around City Hall several times and then got out again, Guédira realizes that Assane and Dumont never left City Hall, noting that this too is reminiscent of an Arsène Lupin story. Although Laugier and Belkacem are initially skeptical, they follow Guédira's hunch and find Dumont in a small dark room in the depths of the building. However, they are too late to catch Assane, who had left the scene minutes earlier.

Later, Guédira tells Laugier that he believes that Dumont's kidnapper and the Louvre thief are the same person, pointing out that Dumont had been in charge of the original necklace theft case in 1995. Guédira, along with Laugier and Belkacem, presents this thesis to Dumont. To Laugier's annoyance, Guédira begins discussing his Lupin theory, leading Dumont to make fun of him. However, Dumont allows the detectives to begin gathering evidence in support of their proposition. The three begin by making facial reconstructions of "Paul Sernine," "Luis Perenna" and Dumont's kidnapper based on the testimony of those who had interacted with Assane.

When presented with the reconstructions, Dumont points out that they all look different from one another. He claims that none of them (including a highly accurate portrait made with the help of Vincent, one of the three men who were arrested during the Louvre heist) are his kidnapper, and orders the detectives to stop trying to connect the events. He threatens to kick the team off the case; as an added punishment for being the driving force behind the theory, he removes Guédira from the team and gives him paperwork to do instead.



Guédira is not convinced that Dumont is telling the truth about the identity of his kidnapper, noticing that he had seemed to recognize Vincent's reconstruction. He tells Laugier and Belkacem of his suspicions; Belkacem admits that the situation seems odd. Laugier, on the other hand, reminds Guédira that he has been dropped from the team, and warns him not to cause any more trouble.



Later, as he is filling out paperwork, Guédira watches The Other Edition, and comes to figure out that beneath the wrinkles and large, greying beard, "Salvator" is the same person as "Sernine" and "Perenna." The next morning, Guédira wakes up to find a notification on his phone telling him that it is Maurice Leblanc's bithday, and that a celebratory Arsène Lupin festival is being held in the Norman town of Étretat, where Leblanc had lived. On a hunch, he decides to call in sick.

Part 2
Guédira boards a train bound for Normandy. Unbeknownst to him, it is the same train that Assane, Claire, Raoul and Léonard are on. After arriving in Étretat, Guédira walks around the promenade, observing his surroundings. He sees Claire on the beach, desperately calling her son's name. Turning towards the parking lot, he witnesses Raoul being roughly thrown into the back seat of a car by Léonard, and then driven away. Finally, he sees Assane, who looks exactly like his witness sketch, yelling the same name as Claire. Guédira walks up behind Assane and says, “Lupin?”

Assane turns around, confused. Guédira asks him if he is looking for a child dressed up in an Arsène Lupin costume. Claire, overhearing the conversation, runs towards the two and breathlessly tells Guédira that she and Assane are searching for their son, a fourteen-year-old, mixed-race boy with a top hat. In her description, Guédira recognizes the boy he saw being driven away, and informs both worried parents. They dash to the parking lot and Guédira follows them, telling them that the two left in a grey BMW.

Assane demands to know what the kidnapper looked like. Guédira describes him as a skinny, bearded Black man wearing a beige raincoat. To her horror, Claire realizes that Raoul has been abducted by Léonard. She grows hysterical, yelling that the kidnapping was Assane’s fault. Guédira awkwardly stands in the middle of the situation while Assane breaks into a car, exhorting Claire not to contact the police. Thinking quickly, Guédira offers to help chase Léonard down. After a moment’s hesitation Assane agrees, and the two drive off, leaving Claire behind in Étretat.

Assane and Guédira speed through the Norman countryside. Examining a map, Guédira realizes that Léonard and Raoul must have passed through the town of Bourneville. He tells Assane that they need to stop in the town so that he can call his wife, and Assane reluctantly agrees. The two arrive in Bourneville, where, unbeknownst to them, Léonard is still waiting. While Assane asks passers-by (to no avail) whether they have seen Léonard and Raoul, Guédira enters a local pub and calls Belkacem, telling her that he has “Sernine” and needs assistance. Belkacem is stunned, and agrees to drive over. When Assane enters the pub, Guédira, aware that Assane believes him to be talking to his wife, awkwardly tells Belkacem that he loves her and hangs up. Assane makes another fruitless attempt to solicit information about Raoul, when the two see Léonard racing out of town. They dash to their car and follow him.

The two locate Léonard and tail him to an abandoned mansion. As they enter the grounds, Guédira notes that Assane appears to have received a message from Raoul. Assane texts back, telling Raoul that they should “do like Lupin does with his daughter in Cagliostro.” Guédira points out that Arsène Lupin had a son, not a daughter; Assane asks him if he is a fan of the series and Guédira responds that he is. Assane tells him that Raoul is also a fan, and will correct the error. However, the returning message fails to catch the mistake, revealing that Léonard is in possession of Raoul’s phone.

The pair exit the car. Assane marches onto a grassy field directly in front of the house; confused by his brazen attitude, Guédira steals into the bushes. Assane calls Léonard and tells him that if he hurts Raoul, he will kill him. After hanging up, he turns and walks back to the car. Guédira runs up to him and suggests contacting the police. Assane disdainfully responds that the police are either corrupt, incompetent or both. Guédira tries to convince Assane that this is not fair, but Assane remains firm, asserting that the police are working with his son’s kidnapper.

After they have re-entered the car, Assane asks Guédira how much time will pass before his colleagues from the police station show up. Guédira is surprised and attempts to feign ignorance, but Assane presses him, revealing that he is aware that Guédira is a police detective. Guédira admits that he has been searching for Assane for weeks, and that he was the only one who was able to figure out Assane’s tricks. He tells Assane that he would have arrested him had he been armed. Assane comments that Guédira is like Ganimard, the inspector who repeatedly attempted (in vain) to catch Arsène Lupin. Again, he asks Guédira how much time he has; this time, Guédira responds that he has approximately an hour. Assane gets out of the car, and Guédira attempts to follow him, but finds that Assane has tied him up and taken his badge and phone.

When night falls, Guédira manages to break the car’s window with his foot, and uses a shard of the glass to cut the wire that Assane has used as a binding. Upon escaping, he sees Léonard’s burning car and hears Raoul desperately shouting for help from inside it. Guédira is horrified, and manages to open the boot of the car with a makeshift crowbar. After Guédira has saved Raoul, the two dash away from the mansion back to the other car. Léonard attempts to shoot them with a hunting rifle, but Guédira and Raoul reach the vehicle and get inside. Raoul asks Guédira who he is; Guédira responds that he is a police officer who is friends with Assane.

Guédira drives Raoul back to Paris. He tells Raoul that he and Assane share a passion for Arsène Lupin. Raoul asks Guédira who his favorite character is, and Guédira responds that it is Ganimard, as both are cops. When Guédira asks Raoul the same question, Raoul chooses Lupin himself, since the character reminds him of Assane. Upon arriving at the apartment building where Raoul lives with his mother, Guédira is confused to find a group of undercover police officers waiting outside. One of them introduces himself as Pascal Oblet and tells Guédira to take Raoul to the Park Hyatt hotel at Dumont’s orders.

Guédira is confused, but complies. When he and Raoul arrive at the hotel, Dumont greets them and tells Guédira that he underestimated him. Guédira asks Dumont why he was ordered to bring Raoul to the Hyatt; Dumont tells him that the case was deemed to be of high importance and that he will be examining it personally, and that he has reason to believe that Raoul is in danger. Guédira pointedly tells Dumont that he still doesn’t understand why they are at the hotel. Dumont becomes annoyed, and asks Guédira if he needs to be convinced to obey direct orders. Guédira relents, and leaves Raoul with Dumont. Later, when he arrives at the police station, he receives an envelope containing his cell phone, his badge and a note reading “Merci Ganimard.”

Some time later, Guédira gets a call from Assane, who again addresses him as “Ganimard” and tells him to be at the Café Paul at 10:00 in the morning on Monday, alone. In surprise, Guédira spills his coffee on his shirt. Assane recommends cold water to clean out the stain; Guédira is shocked to learn that he is being watched and looks around, but is unable to find Assane. However, he decides to follow Assane’s order and is at the café when Anne Pellegrini arrives and comes forth with evidence about her husband’s criminal misdeeds in the 1990s. Guédira and Laugier use the information to arrest him. While Laugier and Belkacem interrogate Hubert, Guédira monitors the proceedings from his computer. He is disappointed when a phone call from the Minister of the Interior forces the squad to let Hubert go. Afterwards, Laugier urges him and Belkacem to look on the bright side, pointing out that Hubert gave them the name “Assane Diop.”

Guédira remembers Claire from the day in Étretat, and he and Belkacem bring her in for questioning. Claire claims not to know where Assane lives, which the two police officers find difficult to believe. Guédira asks Claire about the men he found outside her apartment building when he brought Raoul home. Claire again denies any knowledge of the situation, even when Guédira, now irritated by her uncooperative behavior, tells her that they looked like undercover police officers. Belkacem tells Claire that they will post men around her building in case Assane comes back. Claire says that Assane will not be back, as she does not want him around Raoul.

Guédira is one of the officers who responds to Pascal’s distress call at Assane’s apartment. The police find Léonard’s dead body and Assane is immediately suspected of the murder. Guédira, however, is mainly fascinated with Assane’s massive collection of Arsène Lupin memorabilia, including a number of top hats and a menorah. Afterwards, Belkacem notices that Guédira seems depressed. She attempts to cheer him up by pointing out that he was right about everything, but Guédira reveals that he is no longer sure that he was correct about Assane being Lupin. Belkacem reminds him of Assane’s immense store of Lupin books and trinkets, and his strikingly similar criminal history. Guédira tells Belkacem that were she an expert on the series, she would understand that Lupin never kills, while Assane appears to have murdered Léonard, which Guédira finds to be an insurmountable flaw in his theory. Mildly exasperated, Belkacem responds that Arsène Lupin is a fictional character, while Assane is a real person with real motivations.

Laugier receives orders to visit Benjamin’s shop in order to collect evidence and takes Belkacem with him but leaves Guédira at the station. While there, Guédira receives a notification that a new story about Assane has been released. After scrolling through the article, Guédira sees a comment consisting of incoherent gibberish written by a user named “Ganimard.” Immediately, Guédira suspects that Assane is attempting to contact him, and manages to unscramble the letters to reveal the phrase “la lampe juive” (the Jewish lamp). When he remembers the menorah from Assane’s apartment, he races to the crime scene and manages to collect it. After bringing it back to the police station, Guédira is stunned to find a USB drive in one of the candles. He plugs it into his computer and finds an archive of papers surrounding Babakar’s imprisonment and death, as well as incriminating footage from Assane’s interrogation of Dumont.

The next day, Belkacem tells Guédira that they have new evidence suggesting that Assane was not Léonard’s murderer. Guédira motions for Belkacem to come to his work station; when she does, he plays her the video from Assane’s USB drive. Laugier arrives and asks what they are doing, and Guédira plays him the footage as well. The three officers meet together in the interrogation room, where Guédira explains that Léonard and Babakar were in prison together, and points out that Dumont would not allow Laugier and Belkacem to question Léonard at Le Havre. Belkacem comments that Dumont must have Guédira off the case because he was getting too close to the truth. All three officers agree that Dumont has committed a number of criminal acts, and resolve to attend the Pellegrinis’ concert at the Théâtre du Châtelet that night in order to arrest him.

Guédira, Laugier and Belkacem are allowed into the theater after they flash their police badges, at which point they take seats near the back of the hall and observe Dumont intently. When he gets up in the middle of the performance, they follow him and find him backstage, pointing his gun at Assane. However, the three direct their own firearms at him and tell him to drop his weapon. While Dumont demands that his officers arrest Assane, Laugier places the horrified commissioner under arrest for corruption and influence peddling. Assane, meanwhile, attempts to escape. Belkacem commands him to stay put, but Guédira urges her to let him go.

In the wake of the chaos caused by Assane’s public accusations against Hubert, Guédira is shocked when he receives a message containing audio of Hubert’s full confession to all of his crimes, recorded by Assane. He finds Hubert and arrests him for planning the murders of Babakar and Fabienne, as well as Raoul’s kidnapping. Hubert barely manages to smirk at Guédira before being put in a squad car. As he and Dumont are driven to the police station, Guédira and Belkacem smile at one another.

Personality and relationships


Guedira is intelligent and insightful, but he tends to come across as being lost in his mind or even obsessive, to the point where his co-worker Sofia Belkacem comments that he looks permanently ill. His most notable trait is his ability draw from unexpected sources in order to build his theories. Guedira’s unorthodox thinking gives him a desire to link all of the crimes he and his colleagues are investigating into a single theory. Unlike them, he is not inclined to dismiss the seemingly whimsical, and is thus able to spot what they have missed. This ultimately allows him to connect the dots regarding Assane’s source of inspiration--particularly since, like Assane, Guedira is an Arsène Lupin aficionado, even keeping copies of the Lupin stories at his desk.

Although Guedira is generally not confrontational and is able to take criticism and teasing in stride, his need to prove that he is right about the Arsène Lupin connection leads to conflict with his fellow detectives. Laugier and Belkacem, exasperated with his behavior, advise him to drop these lines of research, and Dumont, fearing that he may be too near the truth, removes him from the necklace case entirely.

Despite this reception, Guedira does not waver from his beliefs, as he is convinced he is correct, and continues to quietly build his case after being assigned stacks of paperwork to do. He is shown to be impulsive on occasion, notably demonstrated by his decision to skip work and visit Étretat entirely on a hunch that Assane would be there.

Of the other pollice officers, Guedira appears to be closest with Belkacem. He is seen using her as a sounding board for his ideas, and it is she whom he contacts to claim that he is sick on the day of the festival in Étretat.

Appearances

 * Part One


 * Chapter 1
 * Chapter 2
 * Chapter 3
 * Chapter 4
 * Chapter 5


 * Part Two


 * Chapter 6
 * Chapter 7
 * Chapter 8
 * Chapter 9
 * Chapter 10

Quotes
"The pseudonyms used--Paul Sernine and Luis Perenna--both are anagrams of Arsène Lupin. And then the method, the panache, the style, the talent. I really think that the suspect is playing at being Arsène Lupin."

- Guedira presents his theory

"He’s Assane’s counterpart, really. If you forget they’re on opposite sides of the law, they’re both just Arsène Lupin geeks!"

- Omar Sy on Guedira

Trivia

 * According to Omar Sy, Guedira is based on the character of Inspector Ganimard from the original Arsène Lupin stories.