Alice and the Mayor

Paul Théraneau is the current mayor of the French city of Lyon. He is going through a rough patch after 30 years of career in politics: he finds it increasingly difficult to come up with new ideas or initiatives for his city, finding himself in the midst of an existential and professional crisis. He is wracked by the constant feeling that he needs something to fuel him, like a race car with a strong engine that is stuttering to its inevitable end, so he decides to seek out some help.

To overcome this difficult chapter in his personal and professional lives, Paul decides to hire a young, dynamic and brilliant philosophy student named Alice Heimann, who was teaching classes at Oxford prior to being thrust into the unfamiliar world of politics, a world to which she quickly adapts despite her dislike of its traditions. It is Alice who offers Paul the perspective he needs despite their opposing personalities leading to several clashes regarding the ways in which they see the world. They two will lay their ideas out under an unflinching light and ask the difficult question of just how much of a change politics can make.

Alice and The Mayor had their premiere at the Directors' Fortnight section of the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, obtaining the most important prize in that section: the Europa Cinemas Label award for the Best European Film.