LILLE, March 23 — It’s a television thriller series about a tense campaign for a French presidential election in 2025, where hopes can be dashed by a last-minute change of fortune.
And the person behind Dans l’ombre (In the Shadows) as co-author of the original book and co-script writer of the drama should know what he is talking about.
It’s Edouard Philippe, President Emmanuel Macron’s first prime minister from 2017 to 2020 and hotly tipped to stand for president in the next election, which in real life is scheduled for 2027.
Philippe is far from the only top French politician to have a sideline in writing.
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But there will be particular attention paid to the starry-casted Dans l’ombre given his own political ambitions.
The first two episodes of the six-episode series, directed by Pierre Schoeller, were shown at the annual Series Mania television drama festival in the northern city of Lille at the weekend.
The series should be broadcast in the coming months.
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Paul Francoeur, played by Melvil Poupaud, wins the nomination of his party against Marie-France Tremeau, played by Karin Viard, despite her being the favourite.
But the momentum comes to a halt when Francoeur’s closest advisor, Cesar — played by Swann Arlaud who starred in the Oscar-winning Anatomy of a Fall — receives an anonymous phone call informing him the primary was rigged.
Presidential ambitions
The original novel with the same title, written by Edouard Philippe and his long-standing political and literary collaborator Gilles Boyer, was published 15 years ago but has been updated for the series.
Philippe, who now serves as mayor of the northern port of Le Havre, is credited along with Boyer as a co-scriptwriter of the series and the pair were occasionally present on set.
The former premier and his advisor took “great pleasure” in their involvement and this was the “sole motivation”, Boyer said as the episodes were shown at Series Mania.
While not yet formally declaring he intends to run for president, Philippe has made little secret of his desire to stand in 2027.
Many observers see him as the best placed centrist candidate in that race to keep the far-right Marine Le Pen out of the Elysee Palace.
Asked if more such series were in the pipeline, Boyer said: “The calendar will dictate what we will have the time and leisure to do in the coming months.”
Another prominent French political scribe, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, is also hitting bookshops with his latest work.
But unlike his previous book, a novel with a particularly erotic passage that went viral, Le Maire is sticking to politics this time.
La voie francaise (The French Way) is a presentation of his political vision that is likely to increase talk Le Maire also plans a presidential bid. — AFP
