"Anything’s conceivable." In the depths of France’s presidential Élysée Palace lies an impregnable bunker, a Faraday-cage stronghold known as PC Jupiter. Here, a very small circle of people debate the gravest international crises. When the threat of armed conflict looms, these discussions bring to mind another reality encompassed by the doctrine of deterrence: France possesses nuclear weapons. And only the president can set them in motion. It’s on this well-documented, credible foundation, interwoven with facts around the current war Russia is waging against Ukraine, that Alexandre Smia has based his debut feature, Jupiter, which screened Out of Competition in the 83rd Venice Film Festival. 

Virtually a huis clos, with steadily mounting tension and breathtaking efficiency, the film slots into a nuclear subgenre usually dominated by American cinema (from Dr. Strangelove by Stanley Kubrick to A House of Dynamite by Kathryn Bigelow, via Sidney Lumet’s Fail Safe and far more lowbrow blockbusters) but which France also ventured into fairly recently (from a different angle) with The Wolf’s Call.

"A line has been crossed; it’s an existential threat. Now we either capitulate or risk swift and total destruction." On the plane to Kyiv, President Paul Archambault (Denis Ménochet), who only took office the day before and is reeling from a personal bereavement, listens with dismay to the menacing speech of his Russian counterpart who claims to have narrowly escaped an attack ordered by his Ukrainian enemy. Rushed back to Paris and weighing every strategic option with his small, divided inner circle (the Chief of the Defence Staff is played by André Dussollier, the Minister for Foreign Affairs is Dominique Blanc, the Defence Minister Reda Kateb, the diplomatic adviser Ella Rumpf, and the Prime Minister Céline Sallette) and with NATO leaders on Zoom, Archambault makes decisions which fail to prevent and which might even trigger nuclear escalation…

Centred on the solitude of the presidential figure to whom Denis Ménochet lends his imposing talent, Jupiter unfolds at a brisk clip, almost in real time, dotted with historical references (Churchill, the Potsdam ultimatum, etc.) and searing contemporary geopolitical analysis. The atmosphere is crepuscular and claustrophobic, resulting in a film which is both a highly effective genre piece but also a potential vector for amplifying fear - on account of its realistic approach - in today’s fraught climate, even if, obviously, it’s only a movie.

Jupiter was produced by Chi-Fou-Mi Productions in co-production with France 2 Cinéma. SND are handling international sales.