Director Thomas Paulot planned his first film from the ingenious idea of getting an actor to run for mayor in a small town. The director set the stage for this spectacle in Revin, a small town in the Ardennes region suffering from high unemployment, and cast Laurent Papot for the role. Laurent Papot also appeared in a minor role in Pierre Schoeller's ///One Nation, One King. Laurent sets up an election camp and begins meeting the residents. He declares that if he is elected mayor, he will literally disappear, and the city will belong to the people. The line between fiction and reality becomes increasingly blurry. Even the actor himself seems to be confused about his identity. The process of an actor performing the role of a fictional politician to look like a real politician sparks meaningful questions about what the role of politics should be and raises questions about the current state of democracy.

2021 Cannes Film Festival

Thomas PAULOT

Thomas Paulot obtained a degree in fine art at Central Saint Martins in London. He then joined ECAL/HEAD in cinema curriculum and directed several short films. His graduation film, ///Heaven of the Beasts// is screened at the Rencontres Internationales Paris /Berlin 2019. ///The Candidate// is his first feature film, between immersive documentary and fiction.