Président (2006)

Frédéric Saint-Guillaume takes a young man under his wing. The young man is merely a cultural attaché, and Saint-Guillaume trains him in political life, preparing him to accept corruption in order to defend his country and to act against his convictions in order to gain power. Twenty-five years later, his protégé has become President of the French Republic, admired by the people and respected by his peers. One day, a plane crashes in the Alps carrying just one person—the pilot—and several envelopes of cash. This news story unsettles the president without quite worrying him, but it arouses the curiosity of Mathieu, a brilliant economics student from a modest background who graduated as the second-highest-ranked student at the École Polytechnique. He seduces Nahéma, the president’s daughter, and quickly enters the head of state’s inner circle. The president invites him into his lavish world and gives him a special post at the Élysée, despite an internal investigation revealing that Mathieu nearly went to prison at 17 for shoving a minister. Mathieu gets involved in two issues dear to the president: cancelling the debts of several African countries and developing a “clean weapon” for the army. While Saint-Guillaume secretly handles the drafting of the treaty for the first issue, Mathieu comes up with the idea of organizing a concert at a summit in Ottawa to promote the agreement. Mathieu also overhears a conversation between Le Gahennec, the president’s trusted aide, and one of his friends, which points him toward the origin of the money found on the crashed plane: the envelopes were intended for the 270 RDP soldiers who took part in the first tests of the “clean weapon,” which had plunged them into severe psychological distress. The revelation disgusts Mathieu. He argues with Nahéma, but the two later reconcile. Saint-Guillaume learns that Nahéma is beginning to have deep feelings for Mathieu, and shortly afterwards the president invites the young man to spend a holiday at his parents’ home. There, he confides in Mathieu about his past and his rise to power thanks to Saint-Guillaume, in Africa, far from the family farm. The investigation into the plane crash is assigned to Judge Benoit, who receives several anonymous calls—actually from Mathieu—about the case and its links to Mikael Korda, a billionaire arms dealer whom the president met in Africa when he was young. Twenty-five years earlier, the president had saved Korda from an attack in which one of his African friends was killed. The case now becomes serious: the president could lose his office if eight members of his party conclude that he has “failed” in his duties, and he could face trial before the High Court of Justice. He therefore goes to Saint-Guillaume and asks him to call on his friends in the judiciary to silence the judge, but the old man flatly refuses to be officially involved. That evening, Mathieu manages to get the president to sign, inadvertently, a request to declassify a defence-secrecy file that could help Judge Benoit. The file contains documents proving that the president knew of the risks faced by the RDP. Shortly afterwards, Saint-Guillaume dies of a heart attack. The president then uses his public addresses to deny any connection with Korda while burnishing his image. At the same time, Judge Benoit discovers that Mathieu is her contact. Later, Mathieu returns to find his apartment burgled and the file missing. He decides to confess everything to the president, who in turn tells him that he knew all about it—the visits, the phone calls, and the file, which he recovered before one of the judge’s men could steal it. Seeing that Mathieu has come back to him despite intending to betray him, the president decides to confess his ties to Korda, who secretly funded the “clean weapon,” as well as his remorse over the lives ruined by the deal. At the summit on African debt, the president gives a speech that electrifies the crowds, but as he leaves the hall, one of the former RDP soldiers manages to approach and shoots the head of state. The man is shot dead on the spot, while the president escapes without serious injury. Playing up his image, the president then claims that his life is in danger. Public opinion swings back in his favour, allowing the Korda affair to be forgotten and quietly shelved without further action. The president also gives Mathieu more responsibility by making him his special adviser, which Nahéma takes badly. She soon discovers that this was the president’s aim: to drive them apart so that Mathieu’s missions would not tarnish her, just as he had previously done with another adviser. Shortly afterwards, Mathieu becomes Korda’s new contact. Korda plays him a recording of a secret conversation between himself and the president, in which the two men decided to kill Saint-Guillaume, who was growing old and had become uncontrollable. Mathieu tells Nahéma, Saint-Guillaume’s goddaughter, who loved him dearly, and the two lovers flee. The newly re-elected president has the army track them down and catches up with them on a small mountain road, where he kisses his daughter.