In the Shadow tells the story of an imaginary race for the Elysée in 2025, seen from behind the scenes of the election…
In the shadowsa series scheduled on France 2 from October 30, 2024, takes the daring side of political fiction in prime-time on a public service channel. Better: in a period of rare political instability, she imagines a presidential election from 2025, with many details borrowed from reality. The program in six episodes, co-written and directed by Pierre Schoeller, already author of a noted film on the mysteries of power (State Exercise in 2011), tells the story of a merciless race for the Elysée, seen from behind the scenes of the election and in particular from the right.
The plot of In the shadows follows in particular the journey of Paul Francoeur (Melvil Poupaud), former Minister of Justice and atypical candidate in a wheelchair, winning to everyone’s surprise the nomination of his party against Marie-France Trémeau (Karin Viard), favorite given winner. But suspicions of rigging in this primary quickly overshadow his victory. César (Swann Arlaud), Paul’s closest advisor, receives an anonymous call denouncing fraud, plunging the campaign team into turmoil.
Noted book and luxury consultant
The cast of In the shadows brings together experienced actors perfectly adapted to the staging of a ruthless political universe, from Melvil Poupaud as an ambiguous candidate to Karin Viard as an aggressive rival, including the excellent Swann Arlaud as a cold, cynical, but devoted campaign director . A trio that gives body and soul to an electoral competition that is as exhilarating as it is trying.
Better than an “above ground” fiction, In the shadows is also inspired by the eponymous novel, published in 2011 by Jean-Claude Lattès, and signed by a connoisseur of politics: a certain Édouard Philippe with his advisor Gilles Boyer. If the former Prime Minister, now a declared candidate for the 2027 presidential election, has tried his hand at the novel and the essay on several occasions, he did not directly participate in the series. Unlike his friend and very close advisor, the former MEP Gilles Boyer, who became a luxury consultant for production.
From near or far, Edouard Philippe and Gilles Boyer have in any case infused their experience from the highest levels into the series, nourishing the realism of the fiction, without falling into the settling of scores. Like Black Baronthe series In the shadows received very good reviews from the press, who praised a “relentless storyline efficiency”, “a visual ambition that the big screen would not deny”, and “a care given to the psychology of the characters, both main and secondary” (Le Parisian). Others praised an adaptation of the 2011 novel which “overcomes its discrepancy with the reality of 2024 by taking the path of the thriller” (Le Monde), in particular thanks to the addition in the plot of the tools of digital warfare, absent from the book.
Are the characters in In the Shadow inspired by real people?
Be careful, however, not to look too hard for comparisons with reality. Already in 2011, Edouard Philippe and Gilles Boyer affirmed that there was no question of looking for the real protagonists behind the characters in the book. “We would like us to accept that we write fiction,” insisted Gilles Boyer. That In the shadows now staged on television, it is above all a struggle for power and “a test of loyalty”, as well as the journey of a “human political power”, carried by “the will of a man” and his entourage.
It remains that the diffusion of In the shadows was a little telescoped by reality, with a dissolution, then legislative elections leading to fears, ultimately, of another anticipated presidential election. The France 2 calendar was undoubtedly also taken by surprise by the declaration of candidacy of Édouard Philippe for the 2027 presidential election, at the beginning of September. Proof that politics remains a material of choice for the former Prime Minister, whether it is to draw from it a fictional story or a very real national destiny.