Documentary on the young voters supporting French politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

With archival footage from INA commented on by political figures, this documentary traces the history of the debate that has divided the left over secularism, from the emergence of a militant Islam in the late 1980s.

In Europe, a new generation of neo-Nazis is radicalizing and carrying out targeted attacks on Muslims, Jews, migrants and leftists. Their goal is white supremacy. They organize themselves in online forums, run dating sites only for whites, or parade through small German towns like Wunsiedel in Bavaria every year with burning torches. They make no secret of their contempt for democratic institutions and want to specifically infiltrate the police and army. The ultra-right are no longer just agitating at the regulars' table, but are also showing an increasing willingness to use violence. In France, security authorities are also monitoring right-wing extremist groups. In 2022, French media revealed that there is a right-wing network within the French army that is openly committed to Nazi ideology. The racially motivated murder of Federico Aramburú in 2022 or the case of the right-wing agitator Daniel Conversano put the authorities on alert.

François Hollande, François Bayrou, Christiane Taubira, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Arlette Laguiller, Jean-Marie Le Pen... reveal the driving forces behind their strategies, recount their joys and doubts, and talk about the exhilaration of popular jubilation and the harshness of an exhausting marathon—the adrenaline, the staging, the blows that are dealt and received, the hopes of victory and, in the end, more often than not, defeat. Through the testimonies of eighteen former candidates, "big" and "small," who participated in the Elysée competition between 1969 and 2012, this documentary directed by Jean-Baptiste Péretié reveals the human and political comedy of the presidential elections, the great theater of the conquest of power.