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The Conquest

The day is May 6, 2007, France's run-up to the presidential elections. As the French people are getting ready to go to the polls to elect their new president, presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy has shut himself away in his home. Though Sarkozy soon knows he has won the election, he is alone, gloomy and despondent. For hours he has been trying to reach his wife, Cecilia but to no avail. The last five years unfurl before our eyes, recounting Sarkozy's unstoppable ascent, riddled with in-party backstabbing, media manipulation, riots, sarcastic confrontations and extra-marital affairs. 'The Conquest' chronicles the volatile right-leaning Sarkozy's startling rise to become President of France and the emotional and psychological stakes involving the conquest of power. On the day the diminutive Sarkozy conquered his ultimate ambition, his wife, who for twenty years had struggled to pull the man she loved from the shadow into the light, walked out on him for another man. Renowned French playwright Xavier Durringer exposes with knowing and sardonic overtones the absurdness behind political campaigning. Based entirely on public documents and first person accounts, 'The Conquest' reveals the inner machinations of a bitter campaign in a new media age.