Series on Play RTS
The Deal
Between political thriller and documented analysis, Jean-Stéphane Bron delivers his backstage vision of negotiations in Switzerland on Iranian nuclear. Play RTS (from August 13), before RTS and Arte, 6 x 46 min.
Do not rely on its cozy corridors, its almost asleep gardens and its anchorage squares with rare boats that pitch softly: the palace by the lake which serves as the decor for the last achievement of Jean-Stéphane Bron (lire ici son interview) is a real area of war. But a game of massacre without official lethal weapons. On this battlefield where we benefit from room service At any time of the day and night, the belligerents, flanked by costumes and tailor-made tailors as a trellis, are shooting on the corner, gauge themselves between two croissants of crescent at breakfast, neutralize a salvo of diplomatic cable. No noise of explosions or fractured bones, but worse: it is the stuffed blow that reigns supreme here.
Accustomed to highly flammable subjects in his documentaries, the Lausanne director offers, for his first fiction series, a dive into troubled water in the Iranian nuclear negotiations having taken place at the Beau-Rivage de Lausanne, in the spring of 2015. Beginning by blurring the tracks: the Vaudois establishment is here transposed into a fictitious palace in Geneva. It must be said that history, as a message on the screen mentions, “is inspired by real events”, even if “the situations, characters and dialogues presented are the fruit of the imagination of the authors”. Hence the feeling of continuously sailing between the thriller with high potential of binge watching and fine political analysis.
Chess and dinner game
In an atmosphere halfway between the Danish series “The castle“And the film”CarlosFrom Olivier Assayas, Bron exposes his perception of diplomatic negotiations, where the ultraprotocol of the event is only the varnish of a violent confrontation between the parties. A ballet of delegations which, in fact, will turn into a ruthless chess. Iranians hanging out, American Americans to bring back a sheet finally signed to Washington, Russians and Chinese in referees that are difficult to read. Not to mention the Israeli secret services that invite themselves incognito at the party.
Beyond the challenges crucial for peace on the globe and for the Ego Agreement, Ego struggles and personal flaws quickly take control of this rating of negotiations, which is more similar to a mechanics of manipulation with velvet gloves. The desire for freedom, fear, ambition, sex of a night. Or the love of a life, as for Alexandra Weiss, this Swiss diplomat responsible for oiling the cogs of this high mass, and whose duty of neutrality will suddenly be undermined by discovering that an old lover is among the protagonists. Despite these six fifty-minute episodes in almost home, narrative tension keeps spectators in a state of vigilance. Not to say apnea. In this new negotiator coat, Jean-Stéphane Bron convinced us to sign.
Our note: 4.5 stars
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