"Edouard, mon pote de droite" is a conversation between two friends with opposite convictions on desire and the essence of power. First part of a project of long-features, which documents the fabrication of French political elites.
Freshly elected mayor of Le Havre (Episode 1), Édouard Philippe becomes the spokesperson for his "boss" in politics since 2004, Alain Juppé, candidate in the right-wing primary. For Édouard, still little known to the general public, the stakes are high: this is an opportunity, perhaps, to become a member of the future government - Not in Matignon, but in a nice ministry.
During the three years he serves as Prime Minister of Emmanuel Macron, from May 2017 to July 2020, Édouard Philippe tells director Laurent Cibien, his "left-wing buddy" whom he met in high school nearly 30 years ago, about his life "at the helm" of Matignon. Based on regular conversations in his office, on a freedom of tone allowed by the friendship between the two men, and on situations observed up close and personal, as well as on unexpected events that arise in the news, this film is the third episode in the series Édouard, mon pote de droite, an account of the making of a political career, that of Édouard Philippe, over a very long period of time, as well as an analysis of the forms of power in contemporary France.