CANNES Q&A: 'The Conquest' Director Xavier Durringer

3:26 AM PDT 5/16/2011 by Rebecca Leffler

The filmmaker discusses the challenges of making a movie about French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite … and Durringer. French director Xavier Durringer has caused “la scandale” in the French republic with his new film The Conquest about President Nicolas Sarkozy’s rise to power. The Out of Competition title follows Sarkozy from 2002 to 2007 as he gains a seat in office, but loses a wife in the process. The Conquest is the first time in French history that a President still in power is the subject of a film and will premiere in Cannes the same day its released in Gaul. Durringer spoke to THR’s France Correspondent Rebecca Leffler about daring to make a politically-incorrect film, his first time in Cannes and the chances he’ll run for President in the next French election.